Track highlights from the NJIC Division Championships

Leonia sweeps Patriot division meets, girls win first league crown since 1991

Leonia has always had a competitive track and field program over the years, but the Lions never seemed to be able to get the next step to go from competitive to contender and then champion.

Enter new head coaches Tim Ryan (boys) and James Case (girls) and the Lions' trophy case has begun to fill. Neither coach is new to the sport or the school as Ryan is a Leonia graduate, who has led the cross-country team to some titles in recent years and has served as an assistant for more than five years, while Case was a long-time assistant at Bergen Tech.

It doesn't hurt to have stars like Jaden Marchan and Miracle Scott either. Marchan won four events for the boys and Scott impressively won the 100, 200 and 400 for the girls as both teams overcame dual meet losses to win their respective divisional meets on Monday at Emerson. The boys avenged a dual meet loss to New Milford, 112-96 1/3, and took their second meet title in three years while the girls won 119-91 1/3 over Dwight-Englewood with Midland Park third. The two place advantage over the Panthers gave Leonia the overall title, the first league win since the BCSL National title in 1991.

"What Miracle has done this year is incredible,'' said Case. "She always had talent, but she really had a tough time during the COVID year and took a long time to show what she could do.nn

Scott scored personal bests in all three events, running 12.67, 26.66 and 59.61, while freshman twins Dominique and Daniella Cameron combined for 40 individual points, with Dominque winning the 1,600 and 3,200 and Daniella taking second in the 800 and 400 hurdles and fourth in the 400.

Senior Tavi Unnithan scored an upset win in the 100 hurdles and was third in the 400 hurdles.

Marchan didn't approach any personal bests in any of his four events and there was no reason for him to, but her helped teammate Omar Brown take second in both the 100 and 200 and he set the tone for the victory.

"He's one of a kind, he's very savvy and smart and knows the effort he needs to win at this level,'' said Ryan. "If your best kid is working harder than everyone else, it rubs off on everybody.''

Ryan also spotlighted strong and surprising performances from Maceo Irizarry (2nd in the 110 hurdles) and freshman Nick Ustiuzhanin (4th in the long jump with a foot personal best) as key to the Lions' victory. "And we won the 4-x-400 without Jaden, too!"

Other top performers in the division: Uma Rajan of Dwight-Englewood doubled the 800 and triple jump, while Olyvia Burrell of Emerson took the long and high jumps for the girls; Patrick Tallman of Park Ridge (1600 and 3,200), Joshua Yoon of Cresskill (long and triple jumps) and Jake Douma of Midland Park (shot and discus) doubled for the boys.

Lyndhurst girls win ninth straight league, Rutherford boys capture third in a row

The Lyndhurst girls lost a tight dual meet to Rutherford and the Rutherford boys lost a six point battle with Becton in the National division. But both teams flipped the script in the divisional meet Monday, with Lyndhurst using a fabulous performance by its jumps team to beat the Rutherford girls and the Rutherford boys outlasting Becton, 159-146.

"These kids are the finest jumping team in school history and one of the best jumps teams I've seen anywhere,'' said Lyndhurst coach Rich Tuero, after his team scored 70 of a possible 72 points in the high, long and triple jumps.

Julia Tozduman won the long and triple jumps, breaking the 26 year old school record in the latter event by 1/2 inch in leaping 36-10. Junior teammates Asya Akar and Yasemin Ugurlu finished second and third in the triple jump and reversed their positions in the long jump. Rola Mustafa won the high jump with Tozduman second and Michelle Bysina fourth.

Mustafa also won the 100 hurdles, Tozduman took second in the 200, Bysina tied for second in the pole vault and Akar third in the discus as the five girls combined for 101 points, one more than the entire Bulldog team.

On the boys side, Rutherford got off to a disappointing start, taking just three points instead of a haul of more than 10 expected in the 100. But even with that tough start and the loss of its top discus thrower, the Bulldogs got great performances from its stars, James Alati, and Marco Bozza-Caballero and great balance throughout to win the league meet and share the overall league title.

"Lyndhurst gave it a great effort early in the meet and I thought they might hold off Becton for second so we could win outright but Becton finished strongly,'' said Rutherford head coach Curtis Arsi.

Alati had a monster day, winning the javelin and 110 hurdles and taking second in the 400 hurdles and triple jump. Bozza-Caballero won the 200 and 400 hurdles and scored 26 points in his four events.

That enabled the Bulldogs to overcome a rare off day by their third star, Kai Sperling, who missed the finals in the 100 and took fifth in the 200 but still won the 400 and ran a leg on the winning 4-x-400 team. But surprise wins by Junior Aidan Haas with a five foot PR in the shot (43-7) and David Rojas in the discus more than made up for the disappointments and juniors Ariel Tepox-Carino and Jorge Gomez Garcia ran well.

Other top performers in the division were Jaidyn Reiser of Weehawken (100/200), Alyssa Craigwell of Secaucus (Shot/discus/javelin) and Mika Tampadong of Becton (800/1,600/3,200) among the girls and Max Thorn of Becton (1,600/3,200) and Jayden Russell of Weehawken (high and long jumps) for the boys.

Glen Rock sweeps Colonial division as girls win first league meet title since 2019

A series of circumstances led to Glen Rock losing three dual meets this season, but when it came to the league meet, the presence of sophomore Iza Samu provided a boost that no other team could match.

After a breakthrough winter season, Samu backed it up by winning the 100, 200 and 100 hurdles, the latter in a personal best of 15.62 seconds and added a second place in the long jump for good measure to lead the Panthers to a 121-109 win over Eastern Christian. Glen Rock added only one other victory, in the 4-x-400 relay, but managed to score in 13 of the 16 events to prevail over a balanced field.

"Everybody did what they needed to do and scored points across the board,'' said head coach Stacie Gallo. "I wasn't sure we had enough to win but we had some great performances in addition to Iza's.''

Sophomore Mia Corcoran had a personal best 32-0 shot put to finish third, while junior Elena Collado took third in the high jump with her personal best mark while freshman Caroline Youn had a pair of personal bests in grabbing 10 points in the 4-- and 400 hurdles.

The Glen Rock boys dominated the regular season and the league meet, going undefeated in the dual meets and winning 129-96 over Hawthorne, winning seven events. It was their ninth league meet win in 10 seasons.

Credit Ben Habler and Tyler Caswell for making coach Brian Weinberg's job a lot easier, winning five events between them and combining with Devin Smith and Ben Raser to win the 4-x-400 to close out the meet.

"Going into the meet, Ben knew he was going to triple and maybe even quad,'' said Weinberg. "So he said to me, if I'm going to run all those races I want to win them all.''

And Habler did that, taking the 1,600, 800 and 3,200 with maximum effort only needed in the 800 to hold off Smith in the event that established Glen Rock's dominance on the day. Caswell did Caswell things, winning both hurdles races, the 110 hurdles in a personal best 15.22. He also took second in the 200 in a personal best time.

Freshman Evan Yuzon scored the other Glen Rock win, throwing a state freshman leading 45-5 1/2 in the shot put. Raser took 12 points in his three individual events and Smith added eight as the relay quartet scored 88 points in total.

"Raser and Habler are great leaders in addition to being great athletes,'' said Weinberg. "They'll be missed next year but we still have some great athletes coming back.''

Other top performers in the Colonial: Jeancarlos Mendoza of Hawthorne (100/200), Jordan Larosilliere of Saddle Brook (high and long jumps among the boys and Julia Jablonska of Garfield (1,600/3,200) doubled for the girls.

Hasbrouck Heights sweeps the American division again.

The last time the Hasbrouck Heights boys team lost a league meet, its seniors were three years old; the last time the girls lost, none of the team was even alive.

The Aviator boys captured a surreal 15th straight title and the girls won for an even more surreal 19th straight time, stretching throughout the entire history of the NJIC (established in 2011) and all the way back to the now defunct BCSL National.

The boys were led by doublers Michael Napolitano (100/200), Ryan Ober (400 hurdles/800) and Aidan Morrow (1,600/3200), winning 12 events in all and scored at least two athletes in all but three events. Lodi's Jack Monolucas won the high and long jumps and took second to teammate Jeremy Andre.

The Heights girls won 10 events, three by Lexi Samperi (100 hurdles, high jump and long jump) and Elliot Eddy (shot, discus and javelin). Ridgefield's Kylie Castillo swept the 100, 200 and 400 for the fourth straight year while Isabel Michel of Bogota won the 800 and 3,200 titles.

Heights scored at least two athletes in 14 of 16 events and three athletes in 13 of them.

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boys 2010 girls 2006

Girls Top Performances

Top 5 performances and division winners (in bold)

TEAM SCORES

National: Lyndhurst (LY) 145 , Rutherford (RU) 100, Becton (BEC) 95, Weehawken (WEE) 72, Secaucus (SEC) 59, North Arlington (NA) 18, Wallington (WA) 7.

Patriot: Leonia (LE) 119 1/3 , Dwight-Englewood (DE) 91, Midland Park (MP) 74 1/3, New Milford (NM) 67, Emerson (EM) 55, Park Ridge (PR) 48, Waldwick (WALD) 32, Cresskill (CRES) 9 1/3.

Colonial: Glen Rock (GR) 121 , Eastern Christian (EC) 109, Garfield (GAR) 80, Saddle Brook ((SB) 57, Butler (BU) 46, Hawthorne (HAW) 43, Manchester (MAN) 15, Hawthorne Christian (HC) 12, Pompton Lakes (PL) 11.

American: Hasbrouck Heights (HH) 289 , Bogota (BOG) 69, Ridgefield (RF) 57, Elmwood Park (EP) 28 1/2, Lodi (LO) 16, Palisades Park (PP) 14, Wood-Ridge (WR) 10, Mary Help (MH) 2.

100: 1. Kylie Castillo (RF), 12.56; 2. Miracle Scott (LE), 12.67 ; 3. Lexi Samperi (HH), 12.71; 4. Jaidyn Reiser (WEE), 13.01; 5. Alyssa McFarlane (LO), 13.02. Other winner: Iza Samu (GR), 13.08

200: 1. Castillo, 25.09; 2. Scott, 26.66; 3. Reiser, 26.99; 4. Gina Minichello (HH), 27.28; Julia Tozduman (LY), 27.29 ; Other winner: Samu, 27.32.

400: 1. Castillo, 58.65; 2. Scott, 59.61; 3. Nina Lantz (WEE), 1:01.49 ; 4. Uma Rajan (DE), 1:01.61; 5. Sarah Vinas (HH), 1:01.95; Other winner: Kirsten Braunius (EC), 1:03.15.

800: 1. Mika Tampadong (BEC), 2:22.98 ; 2. Poppie Bimson (RU), 2:23.33; 3. Uma Rajan (DE), 2:26.89; 4. Isabel Michel (BOG), 2:27.34 ; 5. Daniella Cameron (LEO), 2:27.93. Other winner: Olivia Poplawski (SB), 2;31.29 .

1,600: 1. Mackenzie Bua (HH), 5:23.33; 2. Dominique Cameron (LE), 5:27.54 ; 3. Angelica Do (LEO), 5:27.87; 4. Tampadong, 5:28.78 ; 5. Lexi Powers (HH), 5:33.21. Other winner: Julia Jablonska (GAR), 5:42.61

3,200: 1. Michel, 11:44.19; 2. Cameron, 11:47.35 ; 3. Bua, 11:51.33; 4. Powers, 12:07.70; 5. Tampadong, 12:24.44 ; Other winner: Jablonska, 13:19.84.

110 HH: 1. Samu, 15.75; 2. Samperi (HH), 15.78 ; 3. Ellie Shkreli (HH), 15.95; 4. Rola Mustafa (LY), 16.42 ; 5. Taylor Peters (BUT), 16.59. Other winner: Tavi Unnithan (LE), 17.25.

400 IH: 1. Gina Minichiello (HH), 1:08.26; 2. Katherine Nguyen (SEC), 1:09.43 ; 3. Juliette Sing (RUTH), 1:11.11; 4. Gracie Taylor (BEC), 1:11.37; 5. Morgan Gagliano (HH), 1;11.42; Other winners: Nicole Freiler (PR), 1:12.24; Helin Kayar (SB), 1:13.92.

Shot put: 1. Elliot Eddy (HH), 38-2 1/2 ; 2. Samantha Russo (HH), 37-10 1/4; 3. Sharyn Thomas (EC), 36-4; 4. Alyssa Craigwell (SEC), 36-3 3/4; 5. Riley Butler (MP), 34-11.

Discus: 1. Eddy, 116-0; 2. Craigwell, 108-7 ; 3. Daliana Rojas (NA), 103-5; 4. Russo, 103-3; 5. Asya Akar (LY), 103-0. Other winners: Julia Korpics (HAW), 100-9; Kelly Ballen (MP), 96-2 .

Javelin: 1. Craigwell, 105-1; 2. Lindsey Kontos (MP), 101-4; 3. Analise Feliz (BEC), 97-9; 4. Maya Forte (RU), 97-5; 5. Emma Henycz (NM), 93-7. Other winners: Mackenzie Wynbeek (EC), 92-10; Eddy, 92-0.

High jump: 1. Peters, 5-3; 2. Mustafa, 5-2 ; 3. Tozduman and Feliz, 4-10; Other winners: Samperi and Olyvia Burrell (EM), 4-8

Long jump: 1. Tozduman, 17-8; 2. Samperi, 17-3 1/2; 3. Burrell, 16-9 1/4; 4. Peters, 16-8 ; 5. Yasemin Ugurlu (LY), 16-5 1/2.

Triple jump: 1. Tozduman, 36-10 ; 2. Akar, 34-11 3/4; 3. Ugurlu, 34-10 1/2; 4. Rajan, 34-1 ; 5. Gracie Taylor (BEC), 33-9. Other winners: Shkeli, 32-8 1/2; Kimora Henry (GAR), 32-8.

Pole vault: 1. Oliwia Kapuscinski (EM), 8-6; 2. Jennie Olivero (HH), 8-0; 3. Hannah Visbeen (EC) and Amelia Carrasco (BEC), 7-6 .

4-x-400 relay: 1. Park Ridge, 4:23.12; 2. Rutherford, 4:24.57; 3. Glen Rock , 4:29.72; 4. Ridgefield, 4:35.12.

Boys Top Performances

TEAM SCORES

NATIONAL: Rutherford (RU) 159 , Becton (BEC) 146, Lyndhurst (LY) 107, St. Mary's (SM) 38, Secaucus (24), Weehawken (WEE) 20, North Arlington 1, Wallington 1

PATRIOT: Leonia (LEO) 112 , New Milford (NM) 96 1/3, Dwight-Englewood (DE) 71 1/3, Midland Park (MP) 68, Cresskill (CRES) 57, Emerson (EM) 36 1/3, Park Ridge (PR) 36, Waldwick (WALD) 16.

COLONIAL: Glen Rock (GR) 129 , Hawthorne (HAW) 96, Garfield (GAR) 91 1/2, Manchester (MAN) 73, Eastern Christian (EC) and Saddle Brook (SB) 30, Butler (BUT) 21 1/2, Hawthorne Christian (HC) 13, Pompton Lakes (PL) 11.

AMERICAN: Hasbrouck Heights (HH) 249 , Lodi (LO) 76, Elmwood Park (EP) 56, Ridgefield (RF) 31, Bogota (BOG) 27, Wood-Ridge (WR) 24, Palisades Park (PP) 10.

100: 1. Jeancarlos Mendoza (HAW), 11.14; 2. Jaden Marchan (LEO), 11.28 ; 3. Omar Brown (LEO), 11.30; 4. Renzo Palaez (LY), 11.31 ; 5. Shakeem Simms (SM), 11.34. Other winner: Michael Napolitano (HH), 11.38 .

200: 1. Mendoza, 22.83; 2. Marco Bozza-Caballero (RU), 23.03 ; 3. Tyler Caswell (GR), 23.04; 4. Palaez, 23.16; 5. Lucas Genuario (EC), 23.24. Other winners: Marchan, 23.35. Napolitano, 23.73.

400: 1. Marchan, 50.66 ; 2. Charlie Denekamp (MP), 50.92; 3. Kai Sperling (RU), 51.02; 4. Carter Solloway (HAW), 51.24 ; 5. Jack Park (DE), 51.36. Other winner: Matt Stankowski (EP), 52.55 .

800: 1. Sebastian Herrera Pineda (NM), 2:01.38; 2. Ben Habler (GR), 2:03.04 ; 3. Devin Smith (GR), 2:03.07; 4. Isaac Mutumba (LEO), 2:05.35; 5. Youcef Abada (SEC), 2:05.52. Other winner: Ryan Ober (HH), 2:06.43.

1,600: 1. Aidan Morrow (HH), 4:34.57; 2. Habler, 4:36.04; 3. Patrick Tallman (PR), 4:40.47 ; 4. Marshall Carver (WALD), 4:42.43; 5. Ian Cortez (LEO), 4:45.81. Other winner: Max Thorn (BEC) 4:49.59 .

3,200: 1. Morrow, 9:57.53; 2. Tallman, 10:17.18 ; 3. William O'Donovan (PR), 10:17.26; 4. Carver, 10:24.64; 5. Thorn, 10:33.68. Other winner: Habler, 10:39.93 .

100 HH: 1. James Alati (RU), 15.14; 2. Caswell, 15.22; 3. William Cusick, (CRES), 15.47 ; 4. Anthony Santana (LY), 15.62; 5. Haotian Lin (HAW), 16.03. Other winner: Sebastian Broncano (HH), 16.88 .

400 IH: 1. Caswell, 56.58; 2. Marchan, 57.24 ; 3. Denekamp, 57.79; 4. Steven Ramirez (MAN), 58.59; 5. Caleb Kuperus (EC), 58.68. Other winners: Bozza-Caballero, 58.92 ; Ober, 59.28.

Shot put: 1. Jake Douma (MP), 48-0 1/2; 2. Oscar Solis (HH), 47-2 ; 3. Klejdi Elezaj (WR), 46-4; 4. Evan Yuzon (GR), 45-8 1/2; 5. Neo Bernabe (HAW), 44-9 1/2. Other winner: Aidan Haas (RU), 43-7.

D iscus: 1. Solis, 150-8; 2. Luke Faber (SB), 141-10; 3. Joe Russo (HH), 140-6; 4. Eddie Schaefer (RF), 136-3; 5. Tyler Cappadonna (HH), 127-3. Other winners: Douma, 125-10; David Rojas (RU), 117-8.

Javelin: 1. Alati, 160-0; 2. Julius Catuogno (MP), 154-6 ; 3. Cusick, 154-4; 4. Brady Shine (HH), 153-3. 5. Jonathan Palsi (BEC), 146-1. Other winner: Andrew Maskal (HAW), 136-3.

High jump: 1. Jordan Russell (WEE), 6-2; 2. Jack Monolucas (LO), 6-0; 3. Covenant Badmus (NM), 5-10; 4. Jordan Larosilliere (GAR), 5-10.

Long jump: 1. Russell, 21-9 3/4; 2. Joshua Yoon (CRES), 20-10 1/4; 3. Larossiere, 20-9 1/2; 4. Ashawn Johnson (MAN), 20-7 1/2; 5. two tied at 20-6 3/4. Other winner: Monolucas, 20-5 3/4.

Triple jump: 1. Johnson, 45-0; 2. Bryan Cunningham (SM), 44-5 1/2; 3. Yoon, 44-3 1/2 ; 4. Alati, 43-3 1/2; 5. Noah Thomas (DE), 42-6 1/2. Other winner: Jeremy Andre (LO), 42-5 3/4.

Pole vault: 1. Owen Keating (PL), 13-0 ; 2. Ben Raser (GR), 12-0; 3. Daniel Chung (BEC), 11-6 ; 4. Dylan Gravina (RU) and David Cho (DE), 11-0. Other winners: Peter Forsdahl (EM), 10-0; Anthony Cummings (HH), 10-0 .

4-x-400 relay: Glen Rock, 3:31.08; Rutherford, 3:31.20; Leonia, 3:37.45; Hasbrouck Heights, 3:38.30.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Track highlights from the NJIC Division Championships