Winter Track: Highlights from the Big North meets

Johnston Bergen County record even surprised her

Leanna Johnston felt ready to run a fast 3,200 Wednesday at the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex on Staten Island.

"I wanted to run a fast 3,200 to open the (Big North United) meet and then relax and run the 800 and 1,600 easily to get points for my team,'' said the IHA senior, a Glen Rock resident. "I was hoping to run 10:50ish and maybe if I felt good take a second off of my 10:47.79 PR.''

But she did a lot more. Planning to run an even pace and go thru the 1,600 in 5:25, Johnston saw the clock as 5:20 as she hit the midway point.

"I felt great so I went with it and just felt better and better with each lap,'' said the Columbia commit who was the Bergen County cross-country champion in the fall.

Her first 8 laps of the 200 meter track averaged about 40 seconds but none of the laps in the final half of the race was that slow. Her next four laps went 39.51, 39.80, 39.69 and 39.85 and then she accelerated with her three fastest laps of the race , 39.08, 39.27 and 39.37 before busting out a 38.00 lap to finish.

When the official time of 10:34.72 was posted, Johnston had not only run the fastest 3,200 meters in New Jersey this year, it was No. 5 in the US and took down the seven year old Bergen County record of 10:35.70, set by former Indian Hills great Julia Guerra when she won the 2015 State Meet of Champions.

"I didn't know I had it in me,'' said Johnston, who added comfortable wins in the 800 and 1,600 to help her team retain the United title. "I seem to do better when I don't put so much pressure on myself and just enjoy racing. I'll try and remember that the rest of the year.''

We Are the Champions!

American Division: Cliffside Park used a balanced team effort to score a 108-71 win over Fort Lee to win the girls title for the first time since 2016. Fort Lee won its second straight boys title and sixth in seven years in a tight four team battle, 69-53-52-49 over Ridgefield Park, Dumont and Dwight Morrow.

Freedom Division: Ridgewood swept the team titles for the fifth straight time, but it wasn't easy, especially in the girls meet, where the Maroons held off Ramapo, 98-95. The boys took their sixth straight title (Northern Highlands won the girls meet in 2017), 118-65 over an improving Hackensack team.

Independence Division: Lakeland held off Wayne Hills and Wayne Valley, 93-87-81 to win its third girls title in five years, while Passaic Valley, under new head coach Eric Getz took its first boys winter title, 119-95 over three-time champion Lakeland.

Liberty Division: Passaic Tech swept the titles for the first time since 2016, scoring a near record 155 points to defeat Bergen Tech (123) and Clifton (110) in the girls meet and 162 to defeat Clifton (124) in the boys meet.

National Division: Old Tappan held off Demarest, 134 1/2-129 1/2 to win its first girls title since 2018 while Demarest returned the favor on the Golden Knights, 179-84 for its second straight boys title.

Patriot Division: River Dell continued to dominate the girls race in the division, winning its eighth straight title, with a record 158 points, 71 ahead of runner-up Ramsey. The Golden Hawks won their second straight boys title, 166-110 over newcomer Indian Hills.

United Division: IHA won a third straight title in the girls meet, 98-87 over Paramus Catholic, while Bergen Catholic stretched its winning streak to six, 130-94 over PC.

First Year Coaches lead American title winners

Memo to first year head coaches Nicole Pacciani of Fort Lee and Melissa Romano of Cliffside Park -- it isn't that easy!

Both the Fort Lee boys coach and the Cliffside Park girls coach earned titles in their first major championship Monday and were naturally pleased with their team's accomplishment.

"I was nervous going into the meet,'' said Pacciani, who has been an assistant for five years at Fort Lee. "Losing Tyson (Lowe) and Dean (Park) alone to graduation was enough to make it difficult.''

But Pacciani credited senior distance runner Ekuyami Conteh for a huge night to keep the Bridgemen on top. "He did what we asked him to do and put the team first,'' she said. "He was took second in the 3,200, 800 and 1,600 in what is a very fast moving meet and when he stepped off the track after the third race, he said 'put me in the (4-x-400) relay, I want it.''

The result was the fastest 400 split on a team victory and a second straight team title.

It was a little easier for Romano in her first year as the Red Raider coach after assisting Lindsay Reggo Ryan last year before the veteran coach, who had revived the program a decade earlier, stepped aside.

Romano, a star sprinter and jumper as Hasbrouck Heights and Holy Cross, took a page from her high school coach, Rob Brady and prepared her young team to excel in the technical events like the hurdles, jumps and throws and got 18 quick points right off the bat with a 1-2-3 finish in the 55 hurdles led by junior Kaitlyn Shelley and sophs Liana Ancle and Sarah Zekri Khanfri.

"Our three hurdlers happen to be three of our strongest athletes -- they all did four events (and combined for 56 points),'' said Romano. "We only have one senior (Candy Guarcax) and all the kids have been working so hard since the season started.''

"It says a lot for our kids, that many of the events we shined in, the hurdles, jumps and shot are hard to train for in the winter,'' said Romano

"There was a lot of pressure because Lindsay is so highly respected and I had big shoes to fill,'' said Romano, "But having learned so much from coach Brady, who changed my perspective by coaching life first and track second and I've tried to do the same thing."

Ridgewood girls hold on, boys roll in Freedom Division sweep

It's not very often that a Ridgewood championship is powered by a 1-2-3 sweep in the shot put. But that's exactly what propelled the Maroons to their fifth straight girls title in the tight competition with Ramapo.

Seniors Hannah Otterstedt (31-2 3/4) and Isabel Johnson (31-1) have been strong throwers for Ridgewood the past few years but the third place finisher might be a surprise. It was defending state POLE VAULT champion Talia Hutchinson who delivered a personal best 30-9 3/4 to complete the sweep.

"Talia really came through for us,'' said an elated Josh Saladino, the Ridgewood head coach. "We needed every one of those points to win a close meet like this and you need depth like that to win a one day league meet that also gets over in a hurry.''

Hutchinson led what was nearly another sweep in the pole vault, clearing 11 feet and seeing teammates Peyton Wennersten take second at 9-6 with Marette Conenello fourth.

"The fun part is seeing kids step into situations that they haven't really done before, like Talia in the shot and Peyton running a big leg in the 4-x-400 that put us in position to clinch when Anna Williams won the high jump,'' said Saladino.

But perhaps the biggest breakthrough came from Cellina Rabolli with outstanding wins in both the 1,600 and 3,200 races in massive personal bests. In fact her 3,200 win was the first time she ever ran the race and her 11:20.38 was the eighth fastest time for the event in New Jersey this winter.

Anna Williams winning hj is impt came down to hj and 4x4.

"She's just scratching the surface of those events and did a great job in doing this double, when the 800 used to be her bread and butter,'' said Saladino. "I'm excited to see what she can do.''

The boys win was more conventional with the Maroons taking half of the 14 events, including expected wins by Matt Aono in the pole vault, Carlos Bermudez in the shot, and both relays.

But the Maroons scored 34 points in the three jumps with soph Kyle Dickson taking second in all three events, a place behind junior teammate Victor Souza in the long jump and a place ahead of him in the triple jump. Junior Leo Grace had a personal best for a long jump place.

Soph Luke Pash took the 1,600-3,200 double, the latter in a state soph leading 9:36.23 and fellow 10th grader Jack McKenna had an eight second PR in the 800, taking third in 2:02.23.

"We have a really complete team on the boys side and they went after it,'' said Saladino. "When you get a big early lead, you can either coast in or step on the gas, and we stepped on the gas. It's a great sign for the rest of the year.''

Lakeland girls win a close one and PV boys make history in Independence meet

Lakeland girls coach Damiano Conforti was more relieved than excited after his Lancer team survived a tight three way battle to win its third title in five years.

"It was tight the whole way and even when the running was over, we still had to sweat out the shot put,'' said Conforti, whose team clinched the title when soph Isabella Andriulli took third in the last event.

With spring jumps star Shannon Harnett skipping the winter to be part of the basketball team, sophomore Laiana Anderson stepped up to win the long jump and take second in the triple jump, both with personal bests.

All-state cross-country star Morgan Uhlhorn made her first indoor 3,200 a very successful one, winning in 11:34.66 and then survived a fall to take second in the 1,600. Alex Goll added a win in the 400 and Lakeland scored 39 points in the three distance races.

The Passaic Valley boys won their first winter league title in head coach Eric Getz's first league meet as head coach at his alma mater, and Gettz couldn't be happier.

"It was definitely exciting for me and for the whole team to win this,'' said Getz, who had been an assistant since volunteering in 2016. "We knew it would be us, Lakeland and Wayne Valley and that's the way it turned out.''

"We knew Tavi (Victoria) was going to win the hurdles, so we pulled him from the 200 because we thought a key event would be the 400,'' said Getz, whose planning paid off when Dev Patel and Victoria went 1-2 in the event and later on combined to win the 4-x-400 relay.

And an important figure in the win was newcomer Karim Elsaadany who set a school record of 6.72 in winning the 55 meters over top-seeded Noah Traverso of West Milford.

"We've always tried to get him out and this year he finally left basketball and decided to run,'' said Getz. "We put him in a meet a couple of days ago in the 55 and then he did this tonight.''

Other unsung heroes included junior Basell Dahhan, who split a personal best 2:10 in helping the Hornets win the 4-x-800 and then ran 2:04.98 to take a close second in the 800.

Passaic Tech depth too much in Liberty Division sweep

Passaic Tech has won championships in the past with star laden squads, winning multiple events. While the Bulldogs still have some stars, this version of the track powerhouse does it with depth, unrelenting whether it's boys or girls.

The Bulldogs won six of 14 boys events on Wednesday, but only three girls events and still handily won both meets for its first sweep since 2016. That's beacuse the Bulldogs scored multiple athletes in six of the 12 individual boys events, including 1-2-3 sweeps in both the long and triple jumps and in eight of the 12 girls events.

"Our kids are young and ultracompetitive and we do a lot of our practices together,'' said Jeff Cioletti, who is head coach in the winter for both teams. "They're constantly competing against each other in practice and it pays off.''

All-state football player Trashon Dye was the only double winner for PCT, winning the long and triple jumps with Evan Ramirez and Victor Echavarria joining him in the sweeps. Jordan Lawton won the 400 and was second in the hurdles in what Cioletti calls "a breakthrough meet" and senior Ken Relovsky PR'd by more than a minute in a second place 3,200 finish and followed that with PRs in a third place 800 and in an upset 1,600 win over Clifton's Hisham Ettayebi, who had run a stunning 9:33.57 to win the 3,200.

The girls standout was soph Calyse Villaneuva, who won the high jump, and took second in both the 200 and triple jump. "She can do just about anything,'' said Cioletti, who plans to try her in the triple jump in the spring.

Ashlyn Segear won the triple jump Monday while Taylor Giles and Izabelle Grzybowski went 1-2 in the shot.

Stars shine in Old Tappan girls and Demarest boys National wins

Old Tappan's stars held off Demarest's depth the Golden Knights' first winter league win since 2018. Abby Dennis made the transition to indoor track, seamlessly, winning the 55, 200, 55 hurdles and long jump in grand style while all-North Jersey cross-country standout Kate Meeks won the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 races comfortably.

But Old Tappan girls coach Dave Burns had equal praise for five less heralded performers who combined for 30 key points, pole vaulters Allie Tuite (1st) and Salome Sanchez (4th), triple jumpers Harley McGinnity (3rd) and Emma Mor (4th) and distance runner Rowan Leddy (3rd in the 1,600 and 4th in the 3,200).

"We're a little light in winter turnout because so many of our kids do other sports or are away,'' said Burns. "But we went 1-4 in the vault despite missing our top two kids and our young triple jumpers stepped up. And Rowan Leddy, after PRing in the 3,200 ran the 1,600 with a chip on her shoulder because she was in an unseeded heat and ran another PR for third running by herself.''

It was Opening Day for most of the Demarest boys team and a chance for veteran Norseman coach Mike Theuerkauf to see where his best athletes were and how his new varsity athletes would handle their first meet at a higher level.

He clearly was pleased.

"It's nice to see how well we performed in our first test and this meet proved we have our best hurdling and jumping crew in a long time,'' said Theuerkauf, whose team won half of the 14 events.

"Our senior leaders, Jack Attali, Chris Short and Andrew Tandler put on their big boy pants. (and scored 68 points in seven events, just 16 less than runner-up Old Tappan did for the whole meet) Maybe our best athlete, sophomore Liam Paneque, won the high jump and long jumped 22 feet after taking two weeks off to recover from a hamstring tweak.''

But like Burns, Theuerkauf also called some supporting athletes who had big nights, including senior Quinn Postman (400) from the unseeded heat, first year senior Criss Guzman (55/200) and senior shot putters Patrick Cagney and Andrew Hefter, who went 3-5 in their first season of throwing. They are both baseball players in the spring.

River Dell boys and girls dominate Patriot Division again

Mike Urso is not one to overly compliment his teams. Praise is given when it's earned and his style is not effusive when he does present it.

So when Urso says his River Dell team had a very good meet Monday, it was high praise indeed.

And the Golden Hawks certainly did, winning half the events in each meet, scoring in every event but one and taking third or better in 23 of 28 events. The boys won a Big North record eighth straight title and broke the meet scoring record by 22 points and the girls repeated with the second highest score in thhe 12 years the meet has been held.

"We divide the season up into three parts and the first month is all about this meet,'' said Urso. "It doesn't matter how many teams are in the league or who's in it, the goal is to win this meet and to do it eight straight times like the boys have is really special.''

Urso is especially proud of the more than 40 athletes who scored points in the meet, including 23 boys. "That's when you can say it's a total team effort.''

On the girls side, Christina Allen took the 800 and 1,600 as expected and Rachel Mills continued the great running she showed during cross-country season with a win in the 3,200. Senior hurdler Abreeana Rilveria, whose surprise second place finish in the state Group 2 hurdles last winter was the final piece necessary in the Golden Hawks' 2022 indoor title, won her specialty and took second in the 55 and third in the 200. And the Hawks jumping triumvirate of Grace McQueeney, Emily Turschmann and Marisa Schoenberg killed it in the long and triple jumps, going 1-3-4 and 3-1-2, respectively and adding 12 points in the high jump and hurdles. Sprinter Morgan Levine won the 55 with the fastest time by a Hawk in six years.

The boys had their share on standouts. Senior Devran Ozkan continued to excel in the high jump, clearing 6 feet for the third time in the young season and added thirds in the long and triple jumps as well as River Dell went 2-3-4 and 1-2-3 respectively with Eric Kim winning the latter event.

Junior Liam Schwabik ran an indoor PR to win the 400 and 20 minutes later, took second in a photo finish in the 800 in a second personal best. He then anchored the winning 4-x-400 relay.

And remember the name Alijah Abraham. The freshman won the 55 in 6.72, and set a school record of 22.68 in winning the 200, the latter already cracking the top 30 in Bergen County history.

IHA and Bergen Catholic stay atop the United

In addition to Johnston's amazing performance, IHA won four others to capture its fourth straight girls crown. Junior Abby Romero won both the long and triple jump with soph Kaetlyn Mikros taking second in the triple jump and third in the long jump, Freshman Anna Lynch scored a surprise second in the 800 and anchored the winning 4-x-800 relay and state Non-Public A pole vault champ Casey Roberts won her specialty.

Bergen Catholic got a breakout superstar performance from senior Allan Hilton Clarke, who has been nagged by injuries throughout his high school career. But not this night as he dominated the 55 and won the high jump and triple jump while taking second in the 200.

"He approaches the events open to do whatever he needs to do to excel,'' said Bergen Catholic coach Mike Begen. "He trains hard and exudes positivity even through all of his injuries and setbacks.''

Senior distance runner Thomas Rodgers is also finally healthy and showed it with three personal bests, scoring 16 points in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200. The Crusaders also got wins from Jason Lessieu (long jump), Justin King (shot) and Oliver Lopez (pole vault).

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This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Highlight from the Big North Winter track meets