Completing The Three-Peat: Ridge Boys Win Skyland Conference Championships

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — On Tuesday, the Ridge boys returned to Hillsborough for the second week in a row to take on the Skyland Conference Championship.

The rain delay, long meet duration, and the competition were no match for Ridge as the boys cruised their way to their 3rd Skyland Conference Championship in a row, alongside the Delaware Division title.

This is also the third time in school history that the boys have won this meet, and the win came in dominant fashion with a score of 86-42 over Montgomery.

The boys were led by a few leading scorers. Kicking off the meet was the 400 hurdles, and both Joseph Dachnowicz (54.78, 2nd) and Marcus Reilly (57.01, 5th) set personal bests to score 10 early points for Ridge.

Shortly after was the 1600, in which Brenden McMahon placed 3rd, running 4:17.29. In the 400, Joseph Dachnowicz doubled back to run a 49.73 personal best, securing the win in the event. Jared Rascio also placed 2nd in the Long Jump with a mark of 21-04.50.

After those few events, the meet was delayed due to thunderstorms in the area. It wasn’t until almost an hour later that the meet was able to resume, but the Ridge boys were not deterred. The boys kept scoring and scoring in order to build a huge lead and run away with the meet.

In the 110 hurdles final, Marcus Reilly placed 2nd with a time of 15.29. Marcus then went right to the pole vault pits to secure 3rd place with a jump of 13-00, completing an impressive triple. Next, Kaleb Huang battled in a close race in the 800, running 1:57.48 for 4th.

Then came the 3200. Both Brenden McMahon and Nick Alapatt were doubling back from the 1600 earlier in the day, and they placed 1st (9:30.77) and 2nd (9:33.98).

With a tactical beginning to the race and a strong close, this was a personal best for Nick by over 10 seconds.

Alongside this was the Triple Jump, and Jared Rascio placed 2nd with a jump of 42-08.00. The last scoring event of the meet was the 4x400, and the squad of Andrew Dachnowicz, Jared Rascio, Kaleb Huang, and Joseph Dachnowicz placed 2nd with a season best of 3:23.64.

Kaleb Huang set a new personal best with a strong split of 50.99, and most notably, Joseph Dachnowicz had an incredible anchor leg split of 48.74. Joseph ran 3 400s in one day, one of them over hurdles, and set personal bests in each one- what a day.

With so many high finishes by these boys, the team built up a comfortable lead that no team came close to matching.

Next for Ridge is the Sectional Championships, hosted at Ridge High School on May 16 and 17. The State Championship Season is just around the corner.

— Written by Brenden McMahon