Shore wins fourth straight title

PHOTOS BY CHRIS KELLY staff Above, Rumson-Fair Haven’s Brendan Kirshner leads a pack of runners out of the woods at Holmdel Park during Saturday’s Group II championship race. At left, Ocean’s Mike Heavey competes in the Group III race. HOLMDEL — Nothing is better than proving everyone wrong.

Shore Regional’s defending champions were not given a very good chance of repeating as the girl’s Group II state cross country team Saturday. Injuries had hit the Blue Devils hard, losing No. 2 runner Laura Embrey for the season to a stress fracture, while Lauren Ostrowsky, who sat out the Shore Conference meet with a sore foot, was an unknown factor for the state meet. The Blue Devils had lost the Central Jersey Group II championship by a point to Rumson-Fair Haven and were expected to run behind Chatham and Rumson at the state meet.

Coach Mel Ullmeyer knew better.

“The girls always run better as the underdog,” he pointed out. “It was expected to be a battle between Chatham and Rumson, with us running third. That got them fired up a little. I knew that they wanted it.”

It’s not often that a three-time defending champion can be the hungriest team in a race, but that’s what the Blue Devils were Saturday at Holmdel Park.

Returning to the pack running that had led them to the last three state titles, the Blue Devils easily beat Chatham, 74-116, with Rumson-Fair Haven (RFH) third at 125.

“At the sectional and Shore Conference we didn’t run as a pack,” said Ullmeyer. “We got back to that. We let the leader [Martine McGrath] go and the rest of the girls stayed together.”

McGrath would get to the finish line first for the Blue Devils in ninth place, clocking 20:32 (Haddonfield’s Vanessa Wright was the Group champion in 19:02).

Nicole Ullmeyer led the Blue Devil pack that had stayed together finishing 14th (21:04), with teammate Justine Carnevale right behind in 15th (21:08). Ostrowsky was 21st (21:17) and Heather Gates, 26th (1:34).

The Blue Devils team scoring was 9-12-13-18-22.

Gates improved 30 seconds on her time at the sectional and Ostrowsky was 20 seconds better. As a team, the Blue Devils’ five-runner average of 21:04.75 was more than 15 seconds better than they averaged at the state sectional (21:20.0).

“They ran like champions,” said Ullmeyer. “We took control of the race from the beginning.”

It was a historic victory for seniors Nicole Ullmeyer, Carnevale, Ostrowsky and Gates, as the girls cross country team became the first Shore Regional team to win four straight state championships. Ullmeyer was on the varsity for all four.

“This was the big one,” said Mel Ullmeyer. “People figured we’d be out of it with the loss of Julie [Ullmeyer]. This represents four years of work by the seniors. They worked hard for it.”

So for the fourth straight year, the Blue Devils received a fire truck escort through West Long Branch to the high school. It’s a school tradition that hasn’t grown tiring for the Blue Devil harriers.

For third place Rumson, Sara Robinson led the Bulldogs with her 12th place (20:55). Samantha Marinko was 20th (21:15) and Kelly Wojciehowski, 23rd (21:19).

Rounding out the RFH scores were Ashley Hopkins, 41st (21:51) and Serena Hunt, 52nd (22:18).

In team scoring, the Bulldogs were 11-17-20-34-43 for 125.

Shore and Rumson will battle one more time tomorrow at the Meet of Champions (MOC) at Holmdel. The top 10 individuals and top three teams from the group championships all qualified automatically for the MOC.

Red Bank Catholic’s (RBC) girls are going to the MOC with their third place in Parochial A by a tie-breaker.

The Caseys stacked their top five runners from 16-22 in scoring 95 points and finishing behind champion Monsignor Donovan (24) and Pope John XXIII (42).

RBC and Paul VI both had 95 points, but the Caseys No. 6 runner finished 28th while Paul’s was 47th.

Jen Booton led the Caseys with a 16th place (21:17). She was followed closely by Caitlin Dorgan (21:22), Janine Louie (21:23) and Tina Forgach (21:25), who were 18-19-20. Kat Shareshian, the fifth scorer, was 22nd (21:33).

Sixth runner Meghan McGrath posted a 21:49 in finishing 28th overall and helping the Casey’s win the tie-breaker.

RBC’s Joe Berardi ran his way to the MOC by finishing seventh in his race (16:45). The Casey boys finished fourth (137) behind perennial winner Christian Brothers Academy, (28) whose Chris Horel was the individual champion (16:19).

BY TIM MORRIS

Staff Writer

Red Bank Regional’s (RBR) Christina Nelson has made the most of her first cross-country season. Last month she won the Monmouth County championship and now has advanced to the MOC. The Buc junior was seventh in the Group III race (19:47) that was won by Ocean City’s Brittany Sedberry in 18:26.

In the boy’s Group III championships, Ocean’s Greg Kremier moved on with his eighth place (16:44). Parsippany Hills’ Korey Edwards won a photo finish over Shore Conference champion Craig Forys, of Colts Neck, with both runners being timed in 16:04.

RBR’s Andrew Fouratt did not qualify for the MOC, but he was 18th in the Group II race at 17:03.

Shore Regional’s boys were seventh (253) in Group II, led by Joe Ruane’s 34th place (17:59).