Things went as expected as all four favorites emerged victorious at Wednesday's Morris County Championships at Greystone's course at Central Park in Morris Plains.
The Mendham girls, ranked No. 6 in the state, rolled to its third straight title, the No. 15 ranked Chatham boys won for the first time in seven years, and Collin Boler of Delbarton and Sarah Petitjean captured the individual titles.
In the team competition, Mendham blitzed the field by putting four runners in the top six and averaging 19:50 on the way to a 31-106 victory over runner-up Villa Walsh. The scorers for Mendham were all seniors. They were Grace Vives, second in 19:27, Ava Augustine, third in 19:32, Megan Smith, fourth in 19:44, Madison Orlins, sixth in 19:59, and Emma Barcelona, 16th in 20:30.
Petitijean, a senior, continued her torrid season on the trails by running 19:10 to became just the second girl from Chatham to win the county title. Petitijean, who broke her PR by two seconds, joined Tara Hanley, who won the county crown in 2011, as Chatham's lone female champions.
In the boys race, Chatham, ranked No. 15 in the state, had three runners place in the top 10 and averaged 16:55 en route to a convincing 62-99 victory over runner-up Morristown. The victory, which ended Mendham's run of three championships in a row, is the third title all-time for Chatham, which also won in 2006 and 2014.
Senior Sam Ellis, fourth in 16:16, junior Alexander Krack, seventh in 16:38, and senior Aidan Johnson, 10th in 16:55, led the charge for Chatham. Juniors Charles Henne, 20th in 17:21, and Leo Valenzuela, 21st in 17:24, rounded out the scoring for the victorious Cougars.
Boler, a junior, won a great battle with West Morris senior Brandon Chen, 15:59 to 16:03, to become the first champion from Delbarton since Olympian Morgan Pearson captured the championship in 2011. Pearson earned a silver medal at the Olympic Games in Tokyo this past summer in the first ever mixed triathlon.