Lily Oliver of Toms River South, made history, and the Southern boys and Toms River North girls repeated as champions at Friday's Ocean County Championships at Ocean County Park in Lakewood.
Oliver, a senior who is headed to UPenn, won a thrilling battle with TRN freshman star Jessica Abbott, 18:49 to 18:51, to become the first girls to ever win 3 straight county XC titles. Two boys have won three in a row, Herbie Williams of Lakewood (1983-85) and Devin Hart of Point Pleasant Boro (2016-18).
The victory by Oliver avenged her loss to Abbott at the A South Championships at OCP last week when Abbott edged Oliver as both runners ran 18:02.
Abbott's runner-up finish sparked Toms River North, ranked No. 17 in the state, to its second straight title, 48-55 over Point Pleasant Boro. TRN has now won 10 county titles overall (1990, 1991, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2021, 2022).
TRN finished 2-7-8-13-18 and averaged 19:48. Point Pleasant Boro went 3-4-9-16-23 and averaged 20:09.
The top five for TRN were Abbott, junior Olivia Nickelsen, 7th in 19:51, sophomore Adriana Escaleira, 8th in 19:59, senior Jed Juliano, 13th in 20:32, and freshman Sabrina Roselli, 18th in 20:44.
On the boys side, No. 1 ranked Southern, led by champion Fabian Ramales, completed dominated this race by packing its five scoring runners in the top 13 and averaging 16:09 to runaway with its fourth straight title and 12th overall, 26-90 over Manchester Township.
Ramales, a senior who was second last year, led the potent frontal attack for Southern by winning the race in 15:41. Southern went 1-2-4-6-13!!! Senior Andrew Bowker was second in 15:53, junior Santino D'Amelio finished fourth in 16:07, junior Jack DeHart placed seventh in 16:22, and Christian Schiattarella was 13th in 16:44.
Southern's 12 county titles have come in 1998, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022.