Lots of history was made during a very exciting and memorable night of competition at the Morris County Championships on Monday at Ocean Breeze on Staten Island.
In the team competition, the Chatham boys won their first title ever, and Morristown and Mount Olive shared the girls title after a great battle.
Individually, the record book took a beating as triple winner Collin Boler of Delbarton and Jason Meza of Morristown each took down county records, and Jack Ahart of Kinnelon shattered a meet record.
More to come on the records, but first lets take a look at the team champions.
FIRST TIME CHAMPS
Chatham, led by the senior distance foursome of Ryan Beegle, Leo Valenzuela, Charles Henne, and Alexander Krack, scored 56 points on the track on the way to winning to its first county indoor title ever, 64-52, over runner-up Morris Knolls.
In the 1,600, Beegle finished first in 4:20.18 and Valenzuela ran a massive PR of 4:23.29 to place second. Valenzuela was also third in the 1,000. Henne placed second in the 1,000 (2:36.29) and fourth in the 600 (1:22.20), and Krack was third in the 3,200 (9:50.48). Chatham put an exclamation point on its historic victory by winning the 4x400 in 3:28.14.
Chatham's other points came from Filip Gache, fifth in the 55 dash in 6.69, Adam Petijean, fifth in the 600 (1:23.57), and from Ted Joel, third in the pole vault (13-6).
WHAT A FINISH
With the team title hanging in the balance, Morristown edged Mount Olive in the meet-concluding 4x400-meter relay to earn a share of the girls team title with Mt. Olive as both teams finished with 50 points.
Morristown won the race in 4:08.60, just ahead of Mt. Olive, second in 4:08.92.
Juniors Morgan Ryerson and Natasha Redmond were sensational for Mt. Olive.
Redmond won the 300 in 41.83, finished first in the 55 dash in 7.41, and anchored the 4x400 relay.
Ryerson ran 8.35 to win the 55 hurdles, and cleared 5-4 to won the high jump.
For Morristown, senior Grace DelGiorno was the catalyst. She won the 3,200 in 11:33.08, and was second in the 1600 in 5:14.90.
RECORD BREAKERS
Boler, who is headed to Princeton University, continued his torrid season by shattering the Morris County record in the 600 with a blazing time of 1:19.68, which is No. 5 in NJ history, and No. 3 in the US this season. The former county record of 1:20.50 was set in 2014 by Christian Kildal-Brandt of Mendham. Boler also won the 1,000 in 2:34.77 and the 3,200 in 9:43.09.
Meza, a junior, also broke a record that was held by Kildal-Brandt when he won the 300 in 34.60. Kildal-Brandt set the record of 34.90 in 2015.
Ahart, a senior, etched his name in the meet record book by winning a red hot 55 dash in 6.50!Junior Spencer Anderson of Morristown-Beard was second in 6.53 as both sprinters ran under the former meet mark of 6.54 that was set in 2014 by Brendan Kenny of Delbarton. Ahart and Anderson are now No. 2 and No. 3 all-time in Morris County history behind the county record of 6.46 that Justin Yazdi of Delbarton ran to place fourth at the 2018 Eastern States Championships.