Sophomore Riley Tolson placed 2nd and junior Carly Godfrey 8th to lead the Ocean City girls to their 1st state title in 37 years Saturday in Holmdel.
Tolson ran 19:13.53 at Holmdel County Park and Godfrey 19:39.87, and Ocean City topped 2nd-place Middletown South 94-110, with North Hunterdon 3rd at 117 in a hot three-team race.
Ocean City is ranked 8th in New Jersey. Middletown South is 5th and North Hunterdon is 12th, so the Red Raiders came out on top in a loaded field.
This is the Red Raiders’ 1st state title since the 1988 team, led by Kelli Dougherty in 5th and Lori Heywood in 10th, won Group 3 by a 71-79 score over Philipsburg.
Junior Peighton Clemens ran 20:42.18 for 26th and sophomore Lenna Driscoll and freshman Bella Cera placed 37th and 38th in 21:02.97 and 21:03.22.
All five Ocean City girls finished ahead of the corresponding runner from Middletown South, with Godfrey providing the largest gap, finishing nine spots ahead of South’s 2nd runner.
Ocean City averaged 20:20.35, 3rd-fastest in school history at Holmdel behind last year’s team at Shore Coaches [19:52.86] and the 2012 team at states [20:14.16].
The Red Raiders became only the fourth South Jersey school ever to win the state Group 3 title. Ocean City won in 1988. Moorestown, led by Julia Kuder and Betsy Bulat, outscored Middletown South by two to win the 1998 title and Clearview topped North Hunterdon by 25 points in 2022, with Abby Waddington, Abby Kotran and Margaret Wisniewski all finishing in the top 12.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 