Junior Riley Tolson on Saturday became Ocean City’s first individual Shore Coaches champ in 33 years and the 8th-fastest South Jersey runner ever at Holmdel County Park, leading the Ocean City girls to their 3rd Shore Coaches title in the last five years and 4th overall.
Tolson ran 18:05, lowering the Ocean City record on the legendary at Holmdel County Park 5,l000-meter course from 18:12, set by Brittany Sedberry at the 2004 Meet of Champions. She joins Melody Sye [1983] and Megan Hartman [1993] as Ocean City girls who’ve won Shore Coaches individual titles.
Tolson was 2nd-fastest runner from the six varsity races. Junior Leah Starkey of Ocean Township, the national sophomore two-mile record holder and two-time national champion, won the D race in 17:08.
Seniors Carly Godfrey and Lillian Flora also placed in the top 10, Godfrey 9th in 19:57 and Flora 10th in 19:58. Junior Lenna Driscoll was 14th in 20:18 and freshman Mackenzie Jenkins 17th in 20:40 for Ocean City, ranked 5th in New Jersey.
Ocean City averaged 19:47.93 for its top five runners, 9th-fastest ever by a South Jersey school and the Red Raiders’ best single-race time ever, dropping the school record from
19:52.86 at the 2024 Shore Coaches. That was actually also the fastest previous time by any South Jersey school at Shore Coaches.
The Red Raiders outscored 2nd-place Old Tappan 43-79, with Northern Burlington 4th and Mainland Regional 8th.
Also in the C race, Northern Burlington’s Molly Cataline dropped her Holmdel best from 19:16 at Holmdel Opener to 19:08 with a strong 3rd-place finish. Cataline’s time was 3rd-fastest Saturday by New Jersey freshmen, behind Toms River East’s Addison Sheehy [18:53] and Freehold Township’s Sophia Acquaviva [18:56]. It’s 9th-fastest on the all-time South Jersey freshman list at Holmdel.
Northern – with three freshmen, a sophomore and a junior – had a big race, placing all five scorers in the top 40 to take 4th place.
Junior Kamiyah Vergo placed 28th in 21:24, sophomore Adelina Floyd and freshman Mary-Kate Boyle were 33rd and 34th for Northern in 21:32 and 21:33, sophomore Abigail Leonhardt ran 36th in 21:34.
Triton senior Emily Lutner ran 20:05 for 11th, Delsea sophomore Brooke Mashburn was 27th in 21:23, Seneca freshman Sofia Sparacio took 30th in 21:27, Mainland senior Lauren LaMonaca ran 21:31 for 32nd and Mainland junior Adrian Sykes was 37th in 21:35.
Also under 22 minutes: Mainland senior Cecilia Foreman [40th in 21:44], Mainland freshman Quinlan Smith [42nd in 21:53], Seneca senior Jaden Eberman [43rd in 21:54] and Mainland freshman Kate LaVigne [46th in 21:56].
