Nearly 30 from county qualify for state track championships

Middle Township’s Sean Geary (left) and Gary Nagle

A total of 28 high school athletes from Cape May County are scheduled to compete in this weekend’s various state championship meets after fine performances at sectional championship meets.

The top six finishers in each event from all sectional championship meets qualify to compete in state title meets.

The public group sectional meets were held last weekend. Ocean City had a total of 12 male and female athletes finish among the top six in their respective events at the South Jersey Group III meet to advance. You can read the story on Ocean City’s qualifiers here.

Middle Township is sending three athletes to the Group II state championships. In boys competition, senior Gary Nagle placed second in the pole vault at a height of 12 feet, 6 inches and senior Sean Geary finished sixth in the 400 hurdles with a time of 59.04 seconds. On the girls side, freshman Kate Herlihy placed fifth in the 400 hurdles in 1:09.11.

Also in Group II, Lower Cape May senior Will Berger advanced to the state meet with a sixth-place finish in the 3200 in 9:58.66. He also narrowly missed qualifying in the 1600, placing seventh. Another Lower Cape May make athlete, senior Dennis Cluff, also just missed, placing seventh in the javelin.

Lower Cape May’s Christina Adams (left) and Will Berger

Also from Lower Cape May, junior Christina Adams qualified for the state championship meet in two events. She finished third in the javelin with a toss of 113-6 and fifth in the 800 with a time of 2:25.

In Group I, Wildwood junior Leo Zaccaria made it through to states following a sixth-place finish in the 1600 in 4:44.82. He also just missed out in the 3200, placing seventh.

Wildwood Catholic is sending nine individual athletes and two relay teams to the state championships, led by three-event South Jersey Non-Public B champion Charles Fields (100, 200, 4×100 relay). The non-public sectional championship meets were held early last week. You can read about Wildwood Catholic’s full results from that meet here and here.

— Brian Cunniff