GLAD TO BE DONE: After trekking the length of the Island from Holgate to Barnegat Lighthouse State Park, Haworth’s Johnny O’Hanlon splashes through the puddles as he makes his way toward the finish line to win the LBI Commemorative 18 Mile Run on Oct. 11. (Photo by David Biggy)
Johnny O’Hanlon didn’t want to go into the Long Beach Island Commemorative 18 Mile Run unprepared, so he contacted a friend of his to get some more insight.
“Blake Brancato and I coached together in Rutherford for a time, and I was texting him last night about race tactics and preparation, what time to get to the race, stuff like that, and I basically did what he told me to do,” said O’Hanlon, who cruised through the south-to-north trek from Holgate to Barnegat Lighthouse State Park in a brisk hour, 46 minutes, 59.01 seconds to win the 54th annual race on Oct. 11. “He told me to take it out hard, scare everyone at the beginning and then settle in. It all worked out.”
Of course, Brancato knows a thing or two about the race. He won back-to-back 18 Mile Run titles in 2023 and 2024. The race was canceled last October.
“It’s been on the bucket list for me,” said O’Hanlon, competing in the race for the first time. “As a family, we’ve been coming to LBI forever, and I’ve always wanted to run this race. I’ve heard about it for years, and a lot of my cousins are doing it today, but I’d never been able to work it out to be here for it. This year, I was able to be here.”
A cross country and track and field coach in the Northern Valley Regional School District – he coaches cross country at the high school in Demarest and winter and spring track at the high school in Old Tappan – O’Hanlon had no meets to attend with his team over the weekend, so he made the trip to the Island despite the weather forecast.
And even with a steady light rain falling at the start of the race, he did exactly as Brancato advised.
“I knew what kind of pace I could hold, about 5:45 per mile, so I just wanted to settle into that for the first few miles and take it from there,” he said. “In reality, it was probably closer to 5:55 because the wind was brutal, but nobody went out with me, so I just kept going.”
Through Beach Haven, O’Hanlon had at least a 400-meter lead on the next batch of runners, and by the time he reached Ship Bottom and passed Hartland Golf and Arcade, he was cruising about a half mile in front of former Southern Regional standout and Stafford Township resident Jayant Jani, who at the time was a short distance ahead of Riverside’s Shane Vostenak and Elias Howard of Washington, D.C.
As O’Hanlon sloshed through Surf City and into North Beach, the gap widened to about 2,000 meters. O’Hanlon looked back once as he entered Loveladies and saw nobody.
“I thought there would be people behind me, and I just assumed somebody would eventually come up,” he said. “I kept thinking at some point, maybe as we got to the final turn, that somebody would try to beat me at the end. You kind of have to think like that, or else you can fall off.”
THANKS A LOT: Stafford Township resident and former Southern Regional runner Jayant Jani reaches for some refreshment as he passes a water station in North Beach. (Photo by David Biggy)
O’Hanlon maintained the gap through Barnegat Light and made the turn onto Fourth Street by himself, with only 1,000 feet to go before his rain-soaked run was complete.
“It was really tough; I felt bad the whole time. There was nothing comfortable about it,” he said, laughing. “I questioned my love for running a lot of times during the race. But I signed up for it, so I had to put my best effort into it, 1 mile at a time. I feel OK, but I’m excited it’s over.”
Vostenak finished in second with a time of 1:48:16.14, with Howard following behind in third at 1:48:36.01. Former Southern Regional runner Nick Nocco (1:49,08.40) and Bayville’s Nico Spadavecchia (1:49:59.07), who ran almost the entire race together alongside several others, finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
“I’m getting married in exactly four weeks, so this is my preparation for that,” joked Nocco, also competing in the Island-long trek for the first time. “It’s really crappy out here, but I’ve run in worse. We were all joking around until about the 13th mile; then things started to get a little more serious. There was a guy about 200 meters in front of me, and I eventually caught him, threw the surge on, and lost him.”
Despite the wet and windy conditions due to the remnants of Hurricane Isaias passing through the region, Spadavecchia dubbed the race “just another fun day.”
“I was hurting around mile 13,” said Spadavecchia, who competed in the race for the first time several years ago. “I’m out here having fun, though. I didn’t get to prepare much for this because I have a 16-month-old who doesn’t like to sleep much, but I did my best. I was following Nick and tried to go with him toward the end, but that failed. I couldn’t keep up at that point.”
Sean Gardiner of Croton On Hudson, N.Y. finished sixth in 1:50:12.17, about 17 seconds ahead of Jani (1:50:29.84), while Califon’s Zachary Haapaoja finished eighth overall in 1:50:58.34, and Luke Jackson of Staten Island, N.Y. placed ninth in 1:53:02.26.
Finishing first in the women’s division was former Randolph High School and Bryant University distance standout Chloe Whiting, who placed 10th overall with a time of 1:57.34.50, about 4 minutes ahead of 2024 women’s champion Elizabeth Campbell of Woodbridge. Whiting also competed in the race for the first time.
“It’s a family affair. My mom did it a few times, and I used to watch her do it when I was little, and my sister has done it a couple of times,” said Whiting, who graduated from Bryant this past May and now lives in Boston. “I’ve never run a race longer than 10K, and that was on a track, so this was a lot different than what I’m used to doing. But I liked it. We have a house in Surf City, so I’ve run on the Island during the summer. The only difference is I’ve never run this far north; I’ve only run as far as Harvey Cedars. Most of the time I run toward Beach Haven.”
HAVE SOME FUN: Florham Park’s Bridget Monaghan gets a high-five from a young spectator as she runs northward on Long Beach Boulevard during the 18 Mile Run. (Photo by Jack Reynolds)
Coming out of Beach Haven, Whiting already had developed a sizable lead on Campbell. She simply maintained her pace through the next 15 miles, settling in behind a group of guys and keeping them in her sight.
“The weather is pretty bad, but once I got going, I really didn’t pay much attention to it,” Whiting said. “I didn’t really have a set pace I wanted to run. I just
wanted to run a comfortable pace. I’ve done a lot of long runs in college. We were logging 70 to 80 miles per week, and sometimes we did 16-mile runs that were part of our workouts, so they were this kind of pace. I wish we had yesterday’s weather because that was perfect, but running in the rain made things a little more interesting.”
Campbell crossed the finish line in 17th place at 2:02:14.31, while Jersey City’s Elizabeth Timoney trotted across the line in 24th place at 2:05:31.44. Anna Gulizio of Huntington, N.Y. was the fourth woman to finish, in 29th place at 2:07:17.19, and Bernardsville’s Emily Priece, the 2023 women’s champ, placed 31st overall in 2:07:35.60.
Following Leigh Burgess (2:08:18.78) of Brooklyn, N.Y., who finished 32nd overall, Barnegat’s Kaitlin Lutcza finished in 39th place as the seventh woman across the finish line, completing the course in 2:13:19.23.
“I just like to run, so I wanted to do this more to support Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I wanted to wear all pink today,” said Lutcza, a former soccer and lacrosse player who graduated from Barnegat High School in 2025. “If the weather was better, I probably would have done it a little faster. I didn’t know what I was going to do as far as time. I just wanted to get through it. I was excited to see the finish line. It was a lot of fun, but it was hard.”
Finishing eighth through 10th for the women’s division were Caldwell’s Erin Gloor (2:13:46.56), Danville’s Kaitlyn Kishbaugh (2:17:41.56) and Haddon Heights’ Maria Onuschco (2:18:57.04).
For the 12K race, Lynhurst’s Donny Santos took the top spot in 50:25.93, ahead of Westwood’s Burt McCarroll, who placed second in 51:21.64, and Washington Township’s John Hogan, who finished third in 51:32.16. The top five were rounded out by Emerson’s Giavanna Tabbachino, taking first in the women’s division, in fourth overall at 53:29.29, and Morristown’s Sean Brown in fifth with a time of 53:30.03.
Toms River’s John Delaney (54:28.90) was sixth, Colts Neck’s Greg Dillon (55:52.40) finished seventh, Bergenfield’s Bianca Toledo (58:35.09) ended in eighth, Kate Cino (59:15.14) of Mount Kisco, N.Y. placed ninth, and Rockaway’s Reno Stirrat (59:47.04) grabbed the 10th spot.
