Ocean City placed its first three runners in the top 11 and all five scorers in a 48-second pack on the way to winning the Varsity C race Saturday at the 56th annual Shore Coaches Invitational.
The Red Raiders – ranked 13th in New Jersey – topped 10th-ranked Chatham 67-79. It’s Ocean City’s first Shore Coaches team title ever.
Junior Erik Preisner placed 5th in 16:39, sophomore Keenan Neuman was 8th in 16:52 and senior Ethan Buck 11th in 17:02.
Senior Zach Hutchinson and sophomore Nathan Aschmann placed 21st and 25th for Ocean City in 17:20 and 17:27 for Ocean City, which averaged 17:04.
For team scoring purposes, Ocean City went 5-8-10-20-24.
The times were Holmdel all-time course bests for Preisner, Neuman, Hutchinson and Aschmann.
Ocean City placed 7th in a merge of all teams from each of the seven varsity races. They were 5th among public schools and 3rd among South Jersey schools, behind Cherokee and Cherry Hill East.
Also in the Varsity C race, Highland senior Mason Wassell placed 10th in 16:56, Delsea junior Matthew Littlehales 13th in 17:05 and Clearview senior Ethan Worst 17th in 17:14.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 