Look out for Ryan Beegle and the Chatham Cougars!!
Beegle, a senior, and his teammates made a big statement when they loaded up for the first time this season in a big invitational and produced a great performance on Saturday when Chatham, ranked No. 10 in the state, outscored No. 13 Hunterdon Central, 45-53, to win the A Division at the Stewart Memorial Invitational at Oak Ridge Park in Clark.
Beegle led the charge for the Cougars with a huge PR of 15:45 to win the race and lead a 1-4-11-14-15 for Chatham, which averaged 16:18 and had a 1-5 spread of 54 seconds. Hunterdon Central, second on the merge at the Magee Class meet last week to No. 6 North Hunterdon, ran another strong race as the Red Devils averaged 16:27 and put its first five runners in the top 20.
The top girls performance of the meet came as expected from No. 8 ranked Pingry. Led by individual champion Olivia Murray (19:30), Pingry crammed its five scoring runners in the top 12 and averaged 20:17 on the way to a 30-77 victory over runner-up Morris Catholic in the B Division.
In the girls A Division, Voorhees edged Skyland Conference rival and No. 17 ranked Hunterdon Central, 41-48, and junior Sara Khiri of Dickinson edged sophomore Sophia Douglas of Somerville, 19:45 to 19:48.
The victory by Voorhees, who averaged 20:21 and put its first five runners (all underclassmen) in the top 17, wasn't that surprising considering that when the Vikings opened their season at the Roxbury Class meet two weeks ago, a lot of young talent made their presence felt, most notably freshman Daphne Roskowski. Roskowski won the Freshman Race at Roxbury and she was the No. 1 runner for Voorhees on Saturday by placing third in 19:52.
In the boys B race, sophomore Aidan Morrow of Hasbrouck Heights crossed the line first in 16:20, and all seven runners for Bernards ran PR's and the team packed its top five runners in the top 20 with a school course record average of 16:59 en route to a 48-77 victory over runner-up McNair.