By TOM WILLIAMS

Ocean City High School’s cross country teams swept the NJSIAA South Jersey Group 3 championships today in Logan Township for the fourth time in school history.

Tim Cook’s OCHS girls were led by junior Maeve Smith, who finished first, 17 seconds ahead of Mainland junior Sofia Day, who was second. It marked the 14th time that an Ocean City girl has won the South Jersey race. The last was Alexa Palmieri in 2018. Three OCHS runners won back-to-back South Jersey championships – Brittany Sedberry, Megan Hartman and MaryJo Dougherty – and Smith will have a chance to join that group next year.

Completing the task of winning the team championship were junior Chloe Care, who finished fifth; senior Frankie Ritzel, who finished 10th; sophomore Gabrielle Henry, who was 15th; freshman Lillian Flora, who was 17th; junior Zoe Zammit, who was a stride behind in 18th place; and sophomore Emily Russo, who was 33rd.

The Raiders edged second place Mainland, 48-51, and Moorestown finished third with 84 points. It was Ocean City’s 12th South Jersey team championship in girls cross country.

Matt Purdue’s boys had a much more comfortable margin of victory, outscoring second place Shawnee, 42-71. Highland was third with 100 points. It was the eighth South Jersey title for the OCHS boys, the sixth under Purdue.

Senior Matt Hoffman led the way for Ocean City with a second place finish. Peyton Shute of Gateway/Woodbury won the race impressively, nearly a full minute in front of the field.

But the Raiders had their own version of Red October. Following Hoffman, who has led OCHS all year, were junior Ethan Buck in fourth place, sophomore Erik Preisner in 8th place, junior Kal Heyman in 11th place, freshman Keenan Neuman in 17th place, freshman Nathan Aschmann in 26th place and junior Zach Hutchinson, who finished 27th.

Ocean City also swept both titles in 2019 and 2018 – the boys led by Anthony Conte and the girls by Palmieri. They had previously both won in 2004 with Paul Boardman leading the boys and Sedberry pacing the girls.

Both teams will compete in the NJSIAA State Group 3 Championship Meet next Saturday (Nov. 4) at Holmdel Park.