Led by senior Matt Hoffman, junior Ethan Buck and sophomore Erik Preisner, the Ocean City boys packed their five scorers in under 18 seconds and became the first school in meet history to pitch a shutout at the Cape Atlantic Championships.
Ocean City averaged 16:23 over the 5,000-meter course at Stockton University in Galloway Township, outscoring 2nd-place Egg Harbor Township by 15-83, with Mainland 3rd at 122. The team title was the 5th in a row for Ocean City.
Hoffman, Buck and Preisner essentially finished together, separated by less than half a second. Hoffman won in 16:18.38, Buck ran 16:18.82 and Preisner 16:18.84. Junior Kal Heyman was 4th in 16:24.47 and junior Zach Hutchinson 5th in 16:35.96.
That’s a gap of 17.58 seconds from 1 to 5.
Nathan Aschmann was Ocean City’s 6th runner and the first freshman across the line, in 11th place in 17:08.12, and sophomore Robert Cesari took 19th in 17:31.80.
Last time Ocean City didn’t win the team title was 2017, when the Red Raiders were second to Mainland Regional.
The 15-point total is the first in meet history. The closest anybody else has come to a 1-2-3-4-5 finish was Hammonton in 1977, with Mark Deloison, Elizer Echevarria, Tom Salvo and Mike Porter finishing 1-2-3-4 (there was no team scoring in 1977).
Also in the top 10 were St. Augustine senior Peter Tampellini, who placed 6th in 16:38.93 [102 seconds faster than he ran last year!], Cedar Creek senior Matthew Winterbottom [7th in 16:40.98], Pleasantville junior Melvin Lewis [8th in 16:54.22], Millville junior Arjun Patel [9th in 16:57.25] and Atlantic City junior Muhammad Khan [10th in 17:03.42].
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 