September 29, 2004
Catching up with some ex-Raiders
By TOM WILLIAMS
Sports Columnist
Things are going well for Ocean City High School’s sports teams again this fall.
Four of the seven teams are undefeated entering this week and two – boys soccer and girls cross country –
are ranked No. 1 in South Jersey.
Lets take a moment to look at some athletes whose athletic skills helped establish the Raider teams as
forces in fall sports and who are doing good things at the college level.
University of Kentucky sophomore JOHN RICHARDSON recently finished 20th overall (12:29) in the
Stanford Cross Country Invitational in Palo Alto, CA. He led his team to a 5th place finish. Kentucky will
next run Oct. 15 at the Eastern Kentucky Invitational.
But Richardson is doing more than running. He writes a weekly player journal that is posted on the UK
website. Here is a sample.
“What a great weekend. Traveling with the team is always fun but this trip was especially memorable. We
left on Thursday and arrived in San Francisco later that night. On Friday we took a bus tour of the city. I
had been to San Francisco before, when I was in third grade, but never really got to view the city. The city
is amazing and I definitely want to go back for a longer length of time. After the tour we left for our hotel in
Palo Alto. Upon arriving in Palo Alto we went for a run around the Stanford campus. What a campus. It
makes sense why they get so many top-level recruits, the campus is absolutely beautiful, and the weather
is perfect. I don’t think I saw one cloud the entire time I was there. After the run we showered up and
walked around downtown Palo Alto. The night before a race I usually like to have a good meal. It could be
pasta, chicken, or even a steak, it doesn’t really matter, it just has to be good. On this particular night we
opted to eat at a nice Italian restaurant. The rest of the night was spent relaxing in the hotel.
"We woke up early Saturday morning to do our morning shake out walk/jog. At 8:30, right when I woke up,
I turned on ESPN 2 to find that the UK football game was on TV. It is really cool to be almost two
thousand miles away from school but still be able to watch your team play. After the shake out walk/jog,
we finished watching UK lose and then went to eat lunch. I normally get very nervous before cross country
meets, and I usually have trouble sleeping the night before, but this time I wasn’t very nervous. There were
a couple of reasons why I wasn’t nervous this time. First off, we were running 4K as apposed to 8K, I feel
more comfortable running less distance and also we were not running first thing in the morning. Our race
wasn’t scheduled until 4:55.”
There is lots more at www.ukathletics.com. Just select the link to cross country.
When sophomore JEN CRUZ arrived at Columbia University last year she was a bit frustrated that the
Lions weren’t winning very often in field hockey. This year she has done something about that herself. Cruz
has three goals, all game-winners, to lead Columbia to a 3-5 record. The Lions face Lock Haven Saturday
and Robert Morris over the weekend in Lock Haven, PA. They come to Philly on Oct. 15 to play Penn.
Penn State Senior CHAD SEVERS leads Penn State soccer with five goals and has added two assists.
Three of his goals were game-winners. The Nittany Lions are 5-0-3 and ranked No. 8 in country. They host
Indiana Friday night. Penn State will travel to Villanova on Nov. 3 and to Lehigh on Nov. 7.
Against Lehigh, Severs will face former teammate ADAM WILLIAMSON, a junior whose only goal is a
game-winner. He also has two assists for Lehigh, which is 4-2-1.
Junior STEVE COOK has been a big force for Delaware Valley (3-0) in the first three football games. He
has 66 carries for 313 yards and four TDs. The Delaware Valley lineup also features sophomore linebacker
SEAN RAFTERY (6-3, 245), who has picked off a pass, and junior lineman BRIAN MULFORD (6-0 250).
Delaware Valley plays its Homecoming Game Saturday against Lebanon Valley.
Hartford junior RYAN CARR has a 1.50 goals-against average, allowing 13 goals in 60 shots over the first
eight soccer games. Hartford is 2-4-2 and travels to Boston University on Saturday.
Stanford junior MISSY HALLIDAY, who must be happy to read Richardson's fine words about her school,
has scored three goals, one a game-winner, in field hockey. Stanford is 5-6 and plays in a tournament over
the weekend at Southwest Missouri State.
They are now in Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, California and Kentucky but these former Raiders
still keep making good things happen.
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