By Justin Feil, The Packet Group
Ryan Morgan’s improvement in the fall helped the Hillsborough High School boys cross country team enjoy success.
Now the HHS junior is doing the same in the pool for the Raider boys swim team. Morgan’s improvements in the pool have helped push a Hillsborough team that is living up to its higher expectations midway through the season.
”He is one of the juniors in that good class,” said Raiders head coach Todd Sudol. “He’s improved so much over the last couple years. He’s off winning events now.”
Morgan was a part of the winning 400 freestyle relay to cap off a dominant 116-54 win over Ridge on Tuesday as the Raider boys improved to 5-0. Kian O’Brien, Danny Sanders, Brad Zdroik and Sam Hendrix won the 200 medley relay to open the meet. O’Brien, Sanders and Zdroik are part of a junior class that has been picking up wins since they were freshmen. Now Morgan is joining in that fun.
”My freshman year, I didn’t have as much of an impact,” Morgan said. “I’ve been putting in the hard work over the years. I grew a lot since freshman year.”
Now he’s capable of adding more points, and he gives the Raiders even stronger depth on top of their usual front-line swimmers who remain valuable. Zdroik won the 200 IM and 500 free. Hendrix took the 50 and 100 freestyles. Eric Kohlenstein won the 100 butterfly, and Sanders, O’Brien, Morgan and Zdroik finished the meet with the 400 free relay win.
”I wasn’t expecting much starting off the season because I missed a lot of the training with cross country,” Morgan said. “I’m happy where we’re at. We’re 5-0. We’re off to a good start.”
The Hillsborough girls were equally dominant in a 105-65 win over Ridge to also improve to 5-0. Megan Schappert, Emma Kohlenstein, Julieyanna Parker and Deborah Stoddard won the 200 medley relay. Lindsay Temple won the 200 free. Megan Bull won the 200 IM. Parker won the 50 free and 100 fly. Stoddard took the 100 free. Stephanie Mauer won the 500 free, and Emma Kohlenstein won the 100 breaststroke. Temple, Melissa Gibson, Erica Pe Benito and Stoddard won the 200 free relay.
”I think they were excited to get back into racing again,” Sudol said of his teams. “Ridge did have some good swimmers for both the boys and the girls, especially on the boys side. They have four or five pretty solid swimmers, so you can never overlook an opponent.”
The HHS boys won’t compete until next week while the girls take on Mount St. Mary today in another key conference meet. Both boys and girls are in line to post conference titles if they can remain unbeaten. The boys won a Skyland Conference Championship in 2009. The girls last won the Skyland title in 2000.
”The girls have a big meet coming up against Hunterdon Central Jan. 21,” Sudol said. “You win the conference title based on your dual meets (a change from the conference championship meet format three yeas ago). Next up for the girls is Mount St. Mary, and they’re in contention for the conference title, so that’s a big meet coming up.
”Getting through Bridgewater and Ridge and we would still have to beat Hunterdon Central, Watchung and Pingry and they’d be in contention for the conference title. Hunterdon Central will be a tough one on the girls side. Pingry will be tough on the boys side. The girls and boys are contenders for the county this year. That’s one of the team goals.”
The development of its returning swimmers and freshmen additions have the boys raising their expectations more than ever.
”Last year, we lost a big leader, but a lot of the seniors stepped up, and juniors are taking the leadership roles,” Morgan said. “It’s much needed going into the playoffs. All the freshmen and sophomores are stepping up. We have more depth than in the past. Our junior class has really stepped up. It’s all coming together.”
Sudol feels he’s close to figuring out what the best lineups are for both teams. It’s an ongoing process that can take up the first two months of the year. His job is complicated a bit by the good problem of seeing rapid improvements in his high-school only swimmers and newcomers to the program.
”I have those kids who have been training for two months, and the hard work is starting to pay off,” Sudol said. “I’m always looking to maximize the potential in my swimmers. I’m always trying to make the team stronger. We’re constantly trying to rework things here and there.”
In Morgan, the Raiders have a swimmer who can score well in the distance events. He comes off his third season of cross country in fine shape, and has worked himself into swimming condition after the fall.
”Since I’m a distance swimmer, I feel the endurance helps,” Morgan said. “Coming back right away, I still feel like my endurance is there, but my swimming isn’t. When I go back to running, I feel like my endurance is there, but not my running.”
Since joining the swim team full-time at the conclusion of cross country, Morgan has been pushing himself to drop time. He spent a week in San Diego with his Somerset Valley YMCA club team.
”It was awesome,” Morgan said. “There was a lot of hard training. It was really fun. I enjoyed the warm weather. I loved the city. It was fun being with the team. We had a lot of hard training. Hopefully it helps.”
Hendrix is one such swimmer who has made big gains. The Raiders convinced the sophomore to try year-round club swimming on top of his high school commitments and he’s become a star. Other sophomores have dropped significant time as well. It shows that the Raider veterans are doing their job in and out of the pool.
”I rely heavily on my seniors and captains,” Sudol said. “These new swimmers, they want to do well because they see the older swimmers doing well. They want to be a part of something good. These younger kids realize they’re a part of something and they want to contribute. A new swimmer or freshman can only get that if the older swimmers are buying into the program and are into it. It carries down and the freshmen rise up.
”I say all the time, I can’t lower the expectations, you have to rise up. I see the freshman rising up. The boys, we’re really solid top to bottom. They’re all about the team. It starts at the top. These kids are part of something good. They want to help out.”
There is improvement showing up across the board. Morgan has already started to see encouraging signs.
”My times are right around where I was at the end of last season or better,” Morgan said. “I was worried I’d be way behind. The fact that my times are where they’re at and I missed a lot of training, it’s going all right.”
The improvements are helping the Raiders start even better than they had expected. Ridge has some talent, but was no match for Hillsborough’s depth on top of its talent. It’s been like that in other wins.
”We were expecting really tough races, and they turned out to be, but we came out on top or ahead of where we expected to be,” Morgan said. “Times are dropping and we’re doing better than expected. Hopefully we can keep dropping through the championship part of the season and the playoffs.”
Morgan is happy that he can help contribute and be an even bigger factor for another Hillsborough team with lofty goals.
Said Morgan: “This year, we’ve all grown a lot, put in the hard work and it’s really showing.”

