Chatham Indoor Track Picks Up Two JV Medals

The Christa Racine Drew University Invitational, held Monday, is named after a Morris County resident who ran track and field at Morris Catholic. The event program notes: "Since she has been a coach and assistant athletic director at Drew University, Morris County winter track teams have been able to call Drew University their home."

Chatham was one of those Morris County teams playing host to high schools from around the area at the invitational, which is now in its 16th year. Its runners won two medals at the meet.

Like many other winter track meets at Drew, teams compete for medals at the invitational. They are given to the top six finishers in each event, but no scores are kept otherwise.

Chatham sophomore Anthony Malatesta was the Cougars' biggest star on the day. He won the junior varsity 800 meter run and set a Racine Invitational junior varsity record in the process with his 2:12.69 finish. Sophomore Luke Freeman also placed fourth in the race—high enough to finish in the medals.

"I feel like the team is doing well, and it feels good to win a medal," Freeman said as he picked up his award.

The Chatham girls 1600 meter sprint medley varsity team started off the morning with a 4:41.41 ninth place finish (out of 21). It finished three seconds out of the medals.

Junior Stephen Bangs ran well in the 55 meter varsity hurdles event, placing 15th out of 61 with his 8.98 second finish. Chatham sophomore Anthony Malatesta placed eighth out of 62 in the in the boys 1600 meter varsity run, finishing in 4:50.98, while junior Jake Neumann placed 17th out of 66 in the boys varsity shot-put with a 39 foot 5.5 inch throw.

Two Chatham meet records from 2006 still stand at the Racine Invitational. Ogechi Nwaneri's 7.21 second performance in the girls 55 meter event has still not been topped, and Ben Massum's 4:25.93 finish in the 1600 meter event has also never been beaten.

Many of the teams were missing members who were still on holiday vacations, and the event had a non-competitive feel to it. A few coaches noted that this early in the winter track season, some of the meets are more like big practices.

Randolph, Morristown, Hanover Park and Columbia dominated most of the invitational. Columbia posted some dominant finishes—junior Kayann Richards and freshman Amber Ballew took first and second, respectively, in the women's 55 meter dash.

Morristown's Nicholas Vena set a new meet shot-put record with a 67 foot 1.5 inch throw, beating the previous record of 61 feet, 5.75 inches set in 2007 by Scotch Plains' Mike Alleman.

Chatham's next indoor track meet is on Wednesday at the Pietrewicz Polar Bear Invitational at Drew University. That meet begins at 9am.