Photo courtesy of Devon Grisbaum
Ocean City High School sports teams had a stellar fall season with the boys soccer team reaching the state Group III semifinal and the field hockey team making it to the state championship game. But perhaps the highlight of the season was a state cross country title for senior Devon Grisbaum.
Grisbaum won the New Jersey High School Meet of Champions on Saturday to become the fastest girl in the state. She covered the hilly 5-kilometer (3.1 miles) course at Holmdel Park in 18 minutes and 20 seconds — two seconds ahead of another Cape-Atlantic League runner, freshman Alyssa Aldridge of Mainland Regional High School.
The victory marked the pinnacle of a meteoric rise for Grisbaum, who started running cross country only as sophomore three seasons ago. Even a week before her championship run, Grisbaum finished only third in the state Group III meet.
Grisbaum said she knew she had to start faster in the Meet of Champions, and with a mile to go and runners still ahead of her, she made a now-or-never decision: “I’m just going for it.”
Grisbaum took the lead and with 10 steps to the finish line, she realized her dream would come true.
The difference between the Group III meet and the Meet of Champions?
“I didn’t want to win as badly,” she said.
Grisbaum joins Brittany Sedberry as the only Ocean City or Cape-Atlantic League runner to win the Meet of Champions.
She said that growing up she looked up to Sedberry and other great Ocean City runners, and to be part of the legend — “It’s crazy,” she said.
Grisbaum competes this weekend in the Foot Locker Northeast Regional at Van Cortlandt Park in New York. If she finishes in the top 10, she’ll qualify for the national championship.
The 17-year-old will run for Vanderbilt University next year.
