PARSIPPANY – Luke Schagelin crossed the finish line at the Morris County cross country
championships, pumped his fist and shouted, “Yes! Yes!” He walked through the finishing
chute at Central Park of Morris County a new champion.
But Schagelin also achieved an even more longstanding goal on Tuesday. He finally bested his
father Seth Schagelin’s 5K personal best.
And Luke made sure his dad knew it, greeting him across the finish-area fence with, “Dad, I
beat you.” The extended Schagelin family laughed, cheered, and shed a few tears.
“It’s been my goal forever, as long as I’ve been running cross country,” said Luke Schagelin, a
Morris Knolls senior. “I knew that if I beat my dad, I’d probably win.”
Schagelin crossed the line in a school-record 15:42.37, his second personal best in as many
weeks. His father’s PR had also been 15:42.
More: New champions crowned at NJAC cross country championships
He’d been pacing with Morris Hills sophomore Nick Falcone, running a 4:50 first mile. Luke
knew he had a chance to meet his goal, so he pressed on. Schagelin, Falcone and Mendham
junior Tommy Jendryka tried to catch Montville senior Alex Pelov – and then battled each
other to the finish.
Luke Schagelin followed his older brother, Noah, into distance running in fifth grade,
originally as cross training for baseball. Seth Schagelin recalled the trash talk between him
and his two older sons could get “pretty intense,” but it also served as motivation.
“I’m excited,” said Seth Schagelin, who posted the time for Kittatinny in 1994 – and has the
New Jersey Herald articles in a scrapbook to prove it.
“It’s his last race at Greystone ever in eight years. All the Sunday races, all the work he’s done
to go out as a champion, and he did it.”
Jendryka turned in a PR of his own to help Mendham win its first boys team title since 2019.
The Mendham girls also added another Morris County trophy to the Northwest Jersey
Athletic Conference plaque they picked up a week ago.
The Minutemen girls have won four of the last five Morris County team titles.
Villa Walsh sophomore Blythe Dudley also brought home a second championship, capturing
the individual title in a personal-best 18:22.7 – 14 seconds ahead of the field. Dudley
congratulated many of her competitors as they came through the chute.
“All the girls are really nice. Running’s the most friendly sport in the world,” Dudley said.
“(Morris County and NJAC) are both very competitive races. It’s fun to be here with the team.
Everybody gave it their all.”
Girls results
Team scores: Mendham 70; Villa Walsh 111; Chatham 132; Morristown 144; Morris Tech
181; Randolph 190; Morris Hills 196; Morris Knolls 232; West Morris 256; Mount Olive 261;
Madison 269; Morris Catholic 286; Parsippany Hills 289; Roxbury 361; Mountain Lakes 397;
Montville 411; Kinnelon 467; Parsippany 521; Whippany Park 562; Jefferson 573;
Morristown Beard 588; Hanover Park 604; Boonton 646
Medalists: 1. Blythe Dudley (Villa Walsh) 18:22.7; 2. Maya Van Horn (Morris Tech)
18:36.54; 3. Ivory Piskula (Morris Hills) 18:47.5; 4. Kate Shaw (Mendham) 19:03.24; 5.
Emma Bradley (St. Elizabeth) 19:07.82; 6. Ester Kirk (Morristown) 19:20.05; 7. Kira
Chebishev (Parsippany Hills) 19:23.48; 8. Ines Lemee (Villa Walsh) 19:40.07; 9. Lindsay
Portland (Mendham) 19:44.47; 10. Kate Veivia (Morris Catholic) 19:52.57; 11. Nicole Molder
9Mount Olive) 19:59.77; 12. Madison Gargiulo (Roxbury) 20:03.94; 13. Anya Sadowski
(Parsippany Hills) 20:11.81; 14. Jaidyn Young (Randolph) 20:13.67; 15. Sophia Draxler
(Mendham) 20:18.32; 16. Julia Suttile (Morristown) 20:19.96; 17. Caroline Himstreet
(Chatham) 20:21; 18. Grace Mougalian (Kinnelon) 20:22.97; 19. April Kusnier (Randolph)
20:29.8; 20. Greta Hecker (Mendham) 20:40.71
Boys results
Team scores: Mendham 59; Delbarton 114; Randolph 121; Madison 126; Morris Hills 133;
Chatham 151; Morris Knolls 170; Montville 250; Mount Olive 259; Mountain Lakes 273;
Kinnelon 297; Morristown 330; West Morris 339;Roxbury 392; Parsippany Hills 471;
Morris Tech 474; Hanover Park 481; Parsippany 496; Whippany Park 501; Dover 599;
Boonton 609; Morristown Beard 618
Medalists: 1. Luke Schagelin (Morris Knolls) 15:42.37; 2. Tommy Jendryka (Mendham)
15:49.14; 3. Nicholas Falcone (Morris Hills) 15:54.23; 4. Alex Pelov (Montville) 15:57.01; 5.
Justin Bongiovanni (Mendham) 16:00.1; 6. Jared Weiss (Roxbury) 16:07.56; 7. Krish
Bhaskaran (Montville) 16:08.01; 8. Thomas Amato (Randolph) 16:10.94; 9. Leo London
(Madison) 16:11.13; 10. Max Kahn (Mountain Lakes) 16:12.82; 12. Kenneth Allaway
(Mendham) 16:16.58; 13. Sam Szczepanski (Mendham) 16:25.47; 14. Sebastian Igielski
(Jefferson) 16:26.7; 15. Everett Jania (Delbarton) 16:28.01; 16. Jacob Nolan (Madison)
16:30.87; 17. Kennan Byers (Randolph) 16:35.06; 18. John Cuzzocrea (Delbarton) 16:38.44;
19. Preston Gumann (Randolph) 16:38.56; 20. Patrick Natale (Madison) 16:38.86.