Junior Maeve Smith shattered the course record and led the Ocean City girls to their 14th consecutive Cape May County cross country championship Tuesday.
Smith ran 17:58.87 at the Cape May County Zoo in Middle Township, breaking the 6-year-old course record of 18:44.39 set at the 2017 Cape May County meet by Ocean City’s Alexa Weber.
Wildwood junior Macie McCracken ran 18:53 for 2nd place, but Ocean City had the next four finishers – junior Chloe Care [3rd in 19:04], sophomore Gabrielle Henry [4th in 20:37], senior Frankie Ritzel [5th in 20:48] and sophomore Emily Russo [6th in 21:02].
The Red Raiders outscored 2nd-place Wildwood Catholic, 15-67. (Wildwood only had four finishers, so for team scoring purposes, Ocean City went 1-2-3-4-5.)
Ocean City has won every county title since 2009, when Wildwood Catholic went 1-2-3 and edged Ocean City, 30-32. There was no meet held in 2020.
Wildwood junior Leiah Pawlus [7th in 21:03], Ocean City junior Zoe Zammit [8th in 21:04], Ocean City freshman Lillian Flora [9th in 21:14] and Lower Cape May Regional sophomore Jenna Hill [10th in 21:46] rounded out the top 10.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 