Senior Maeve Smith won her 2nd straight title and the Ocean City girls won their 15th consecutive Cape May County title Thursday in Middle Township.
For the 2nd straight year, Smith, Wildwood’s senior Macie McCracken took 2nd and Ocean City’s senior Chloe Care 3rd.
Ocean City went 1-3-4-5-6-7-9, placing their first seven runners ahead of every other team’s 3rd runner. Since Wildwood didn’t field a full team, Ocean City officially had a perfect 15-point score for the 2nd straight year. The Red Raiders outscored 2nd-place Middle Township 15-72, with Wildwood Catholic 3rd at 85.
Smith ran 19:43 at Avalon XC Course and edged McCracken by 25 meters. McCracken was 2nd in 19:50.
The next five finishers were from Ocean City, ranked No. 2 in the state: Care was 3rd in 20:11, sophomore Carly Godfrey 4th in 21:06, freshman Riley Tolson 5th in 21:07, sophomore Peighton Clemens 6th in 21:15 and senior Zoe Zammit 7th in 21:40. Junior Gabrielle Henry placed 9th in 21:59.
Ocean City has won every county title since 2009, when Wildwood Catholic went 1-2-3 and edged Ocean City, 30-32. The meet was not held in 2020.
Also finishing under 24 minutes were Lower Cape May junior Jenne Hill [8th in 21:51], Middle Township junior Olivia Orton [10th in 22:06], Wildwood senior Leiah Pawlus [11th in 22:53], Lower Cape May junior Hannah Souder [12th in 23:20], Cape May County Tech junior Kirstyn McHale [13th in 23:21] and sophomore Middle Township Eden Geisel [14th in 23:38].
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 