Swimming: Top performances, results from the 2023 Passaic County championships

WAYNE – The medal collection keeps on growing inside the Kiss Household. So does the one at Passaic Tech.

Passaic Tech brothers Adam and Oliver Kiss doubled up on individual titles Saturday at the Passaic County Swimming Championships after uniting to win the opening relay. It was their first time swimming together at the county meet and catapulted the Wayne school to another banner day. The Bulldogs won the Passaic title for the eighth straight time in boys swimming and made it five in a row on the girls side.

"All the boys are super close to each other," Adam Kiss said. "Coach (Denise Aronson) is definitely like a mom. She pays attention to all of us."

Passaic Tech won nine of the 11 events on the boys side to out-pace runner up Wayne Valley, 465-280, in the standings. Adam Kiss won the individual medley for the second straight year as a junior and broke his own meet record in the 500 freestyle. His freshman brother took home county gold in the 50 freestyle and set a personal-best in the breaststroke after touching the wall first.

"I was excited to be with my brother and take down the competition together," Oliver Kiss said. "I wanted to get my name up there (on the school record board) with my brother on the relay."

The North Haledon natives were not the only swimmers to leave a huge imprint on the 15th annual championship event. Wayne Valley's Sarah Rodrigues picked off the county record in the individual medley and became the first to break a minute (56.98) in the butterfly.

Passaic Tech showed off its staying power on the girls side with freshmen Julia Lo (100 free) and Francesca Cordero (100 breaststroke) racing to their first career titles. It allowed the Bulldogs to fend off Wayne Hills, 400-344, even after losing a program-changing senior class.

"I think that people were kind of looking at us to be down this year," Passaic Tech coach Gen Wall said. "I'm really trying to set the standard for Passaic County now for at least as long as I'm here, that this will be always be a strong program. Five is setting the tone that we're here to stay."

Wall praised the way her freshman class has bought into the team mentality while making the lineup a little deeper than expected. At one point this week, Wall scored out the meet as a two-point win over Wayne Hills and her former high school coach Mike Shale.

"If it's going to be tough against anyone, I want it to be Shale," Wall said. "I thought we could do it. I really felt like the team believed in each other and they knew that we were going to do it."

One of the loudest moments Saturday morning came in the 200 freestyle relay when the Lakeland/West Milford girls came from Lane 1 to take the event. It was one of five wins for the upstart program, which had never won a Passaic County race (boys or girls) in its four other appereances. Sophomore Emily Kebrdle became the program's first county champion earlier in the 200 freestyle. Kebrdle went out to sweep the distance freestyles after missing about two weeks in December with a respiratory illness.

"We're super excited," coach Patty Kebrdle said. "It was a very exciting (relay) race. Both the girls who finished first place in their races have been working hard all year. Emily was overcoming being sick in December so she had a rough start to the season. So this was really big for her."

Girls swimming

Team scores: 1. Passaic Tech, 400; 2. Wayne Hills, 344; 3. Lakeland/West Milford, 253; 4. Wayne Valley, 182; 5. Clifton, 100; 6. Passaic, 10.

200 medley relay: 200 medley relay: 1. Passaic Tech, 1:55.95 (Leah Ciabattoni, Francesca Cordero, Julia Lo, Danna Tapia); 2. Wayne Hills, 1:59.91; 3. Lakeland/West Milford, 2:00.07; 4. Wayne Valley, 2:06.86; 5. Passaic Tech, 2:07.71; 6. Wayne Hills, 2:09.50.

200 freestyle: 1. Emily Kebrdle, Lakeland/West Milford, 2:02.08; 2. Ashaly Dominguez, Passaic Tech, 2:06.21; 3. Alexis Gentile, Wayne Hills, 2:06.45; 4. Renata Chyshkevych, Clifton 2:12.50; 5. Anna Diaz, Passaic Tech, 2:13.09; 6. Naiara Castrillion, Passaic Tech 2:19.00.

200 IM: 1. Sarah Rodrigues, Wayne Valley, 2:06.45; 2. Francesca Cordero, Passaic Tech, 2:14.96; 3. Danna Tapia, Passaic Tech, 2:22.33; 4. Rebecca Siuffe, Wayne Hills, 2:28.10; 5. Mary Puglisi, Wayne Hills, 2:28.18; 6. Samantha McKatten, Passaic Tech, 2:34.42.

50 freestyle: 1. Nicole Magee, Lakeland/West Milford, 26.31; 2. Mia Medina, Wayne Hills, 27.08; 3. Callie Ng, Wayne Hills, 27.56; 4. Abigail Chetnik, Passaic Tech 27.72; 5. Elizabeth Fishman, Passaic Tech, 28.25; 6. Maeve Grant, Lakeland/West Milford, 28.48.

100 fly: 1. Sarah Rodrigues, Wayne Valley, 56.98; 2. Danna Tapia, Passaic Tech, 1:03.50; 3. Abigail Chaky Clifton, 1:04.35; 4. Rebecca Siuffe, Wayne Hills, 1:05.46; 5. Mary Puglisi, Waynee Hills, 1:06.57; 6. Sofia Wunej, Wayne Hills, 1:07.95.

100 freestyle: 1. Julia Lo, Passaic Tech, 55.89, 2. Ashaly Dominguez, Passaic Tech, 58.47; 3. Mia Medina, Wayne Hills, 59.34; 4. Sasha Wunej, Wayne Hills, 1:02.80; 5. Maeve Grant, Lakeland/West Milford, 1:03.26; 6. Emma Arango, Wayne Hills, 1:03.46.

500 freestyle: 1. Emily Kebrdle, Lakeland/West Milford, 5:28.37; 2. Alexis Gentile, Wayne Hills, 5:37.00; 3. Leah Ciabattoni, Passaic Tech, 5:39.92; 4. Julia Lo, 5:40.81; 5. Anna Diaz, Passaic Tech, 6:03.27; 6. Tori Burgess, Wayne Hills, 6:03.72.

200 free relay: 1. Lakeland/West Milford (Nicole Magee, Emily Kebrdle, Chris Ranft, Maeve Grant), 1:48.43, 2. Passaic Tech, 1:49.15; 3. Wayne Valley, 1:51.19; 4. Wayne Hills, 1:52.34; 5. Passaic Tech, 1:54.19; 6. Wayne Hills, 1:59.78.

100 backstroke: 1. Nicole Magee, Lakeland/West Milford, 1:04.43; 2. Leah Ciabattoni, Passaic Tech, 1:05.97; 3. Renata Chyshkevych, Clifton, 1:06.36; 4. Naiara Castrillion, Passaic Tech, 1:09.98; 5. Elliana Macaluso, Passaic Tech, 1:11.13; 6. Tori Burgess, Wayne Hills, 1:13.05.

100 breaststroke: 1. Francesca Cordero, Passaic Tech, 1:09.87; 2. Callie Ng, Wayne Hills, 1:10.64; 3. Chris Ranft, Lakeland/West Milford, 1:14.90; 4. Isabelle Kuhn, Lakeland/West Milford, 1:19.31; 5. Rebekah Setti, Lakeland/West Milford, 1:20.32; 6. Ashley Castillo, Passaic Tech, 1:20.41.

400 free relay: 1. Passaic Tech (1. Ashaly Dominguez, Samantha McKatten, Julia Lo, Leah Ciabattonni), 3:55.56; 2. Wayne Hills, 3:59.88; 3. Passaic Tech, 4:13.04; 4. Wayne Hills, 4:24.39; 5. Wayne Valley, 4:41.71; 6. Lakeland/West Milford, 4:45.02.

Boys swimming

Team scores: 1. Passaic Tech, 465; 2. Wayne Valley, 280; 3. Wayne Hills, 251; 4. Clifton, 129; 5. Lakeland/West Milford, 89; 6. Passaic, 35.

200 medley relay: 1. Passaic Tech, 1:41.81 (Adam Kiss, Oliver Kiss, Joseph Stauss, Thomas Celentano); 2. Wayne Valley, 1:43.98; 3. Passaic Tech, 1:44.76; 4. Wayne Hills, 1:50.33; 5. Wayne Valley, 1:55.35; 6. Clifton, 1:58.09.

200 freestyle: 1. Tyler Roer, Passaic Tech, 1:49.87; 2. Ariel Molina, Passaic Tech, 1:57.93; 3. Nathan Macaranas, Passaic Tech, 2:01.59; 4. Dylan Borowinski, Wayne Valley, 2:09.48; 5. Steven Martinez, Passaic, 2:14.99; 6. Matthew Rodes, Clifton, 2:18.73.

200 IM: 1. Adam Kiss, Passaic Tech, 2:00.73; 2. Frank Coste, Clifton 2:06.52; 3. Zachary McKatten, Passaic Tech, 206.69; 4. William Lebron, Wayne Hills, 2:08.53; 5. Will Torticill, Pompton Lake, 2:10.15; 6. Maxwell Matthews, Wayne Valley, 2:11.95.

50 freestyle: 1. Oliver Kiss, Passaic Tech, 23.58; 2. Joseph Stauss, Passaic Tech, 23.60; 3. Jake Ryan, Wayne Valley, 23.76; 4. Thomas Celentano, Passaic Tech, 23.79; 5. Liam Pakonis, Wayne Hills, 24.88; 6. Jace Kim, Wayne Hills, 25.94.

100 fly: 1. Tyler Roer, Passaic Tech, 54.66; 2. Max Carter, 56.04; 3. Joseph Stauss, Passaic Tech, 56.16; 4. Franke Coste, Clifton, 56.71; 5. Edward Callaghan, Passaic Tech, 57.15; 6. Owen Schouten, Clifton, 1:06.36.

100 freestyle: 1. Matthew Piacentini, Wayne Valley, 49.32; 2. Will Torticill, Pompton Lakes, 51.11; 3. Alex Buftea, Wayne Hills, 51.33; 4. Ariel Molina, Passaic Tech, 51.35; 5. William Lebron, Wayne Hills, 51.60; 6. Michael Sanchez, Passaic Tech, 52.60.

500 freestyle: 1. Adam Kiss, Passaic Tech, 4:43.22; 2. Alex Buftea, Wayne Hills, 5:13.43; 3. Matthew Campos, 5:29.48; 4. Patrick Lo, Passaic Tech, 5:34.37; 5. Avi Shah, Passaic Tech, 5:58.10; 6. Dylan Borowinski, Wayne Valley, 6:07.37.

200 free relay: 1. Wayne Valley (Jake Ryan, Zak Li, Max Carter, Matthew Piacentini), 1:31.35; 2. Passaic Tech, 1:31.87; 3. Passaic Tech, 1:35.32; 4. Wayne Hills, 1:44.60; 5. Clifton, 1:47.27; 6. Lakeland/West Milford, 1:48.62.

100 backstroke: 1. Zachary McKatten, Passaic Tech, 54.20; 2. Maxwell Matthews, Wayne Valley, 58.81; 3. Alexander Traboulsi, Passaic Tech, 1:01.10; 4. Edward Callaghan, Passaic Tech, 1:02.42; 5. Joshua Henry, Clifton, 1:08.04; 6. Sofian Morsy, Wayne Valley, 1:13.48.

100 breaststroke: 1. Oliver Kiss, Passaic Tech, 1:02.31; 2. Michael Sanchez, Passaic Tech, 1:03.56; 3. Zak Li, Wayne Valley, 1:03.86; 4. Nathan Macaranas, Passaic Tech, 1:03.86; 5. Michael Kudrik, Wayne Valley, 1:06.57; 6. Evan Hablitz, Wayne Hills, 1:11.84.

400 free relay: 1. Passaic Tech (Ariel Molina, Tyler Roer, Zachary McKatten, Adam Kiss), 3:21.34; 2. Wayne Valley, 3:29.56; 3. Passaic Tech, 3:31.77; 4. Wayne Hills, 3:32.67; 5. Wayne Valley, 3:58.67; 6. Wayne Hills, 4:01.94.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ swimming: Top performances, results from the Passaic County meet