🏃‍♀️🏃🏾‍♂️💨Track & Field: The North Jersey Top 25

by | May 3, 2026

TRACK & Field

Portrait of Paul SchwartzPaul Schwartz

NorthJersey.com

The North Jersey track and field season is divided into three parts, the dual meet season, the relays season and championship season.

The calendar forces the first two seasons to be run simultaneously with dual meets held during the week and the larger relay meets on the weekend. Championship season starts in late April with league meets, followed by Bergen and Passaic County meets the first full week in May, sectionals the weekend of May 15-16, groups two weeks later and the State Meet of Champions on Wednesday, June 3, the earliest in state history.

A month into the 2025-26 season, the North Jersey Top 25 is significantly different than the preseason rankings. Preseason rankings are based mainly on 2025 spring sectional and state championship results and these first monthly rankings are totally based on county relays performance. As league, county and sectional performances are factored in, these rankings are sure to change and final rankings will reflect the entire season.

Girls Top 25

Preseason rankings in parentheses.

  1. Ramapo (1)
  2. Passaic Tech (2)
  3. Old Tappan (5)
  4. Demarest (3)
  5. Ramsey (7)
  6. Ridgewood (6)
  7. Hasbrouck Heights (9)
  8. IHA (14)
  9. Lakeland (24)
  10. Northern Highlands (4)
  11. West Milford (16)
  12. Lyndhurst (team to watch)
  13. Wayne Hills (unranked)
  14. River Dell (10)
  15. Pascack Valley (team to watch)
  16. Holy Angels (22)
  17. Paramus Catholic (12)
  18. Tenafly (19)
  19. Westwood (11)
  20. Hawthorne (unranked)
  21. Garfield (unranked)
  22. Waldwick (23)
  23. Bergen Tech (8)
  24. Midland Park (unranked)
  25. Clifton (25)

Boys top 25

Preseason ranking in parentheses.

  1. Hackensack (5)
  2. Northern Highlands (9)
  3. River Dell (8)
  4. Old Tappan (1)
  5. Becton (team to watch)
  6. Passaic Tech (6)
  7. Ridgewood (10)
  8. Hasbrouck Heights (22)
  9. Paramus Catholic (19)
  10. Don Bosco (3)
  11. Lakeland (20)
  12. Demarest (2)
  13. New Milford (16)
  14. Ramsey (team to watch)
  15. Leonia (13)
  16. Glen Rock (7)
  17. Bergenfield (17)
  18. Dumont (12)
  19. West Milford (24)
  20. Fort Lee (15)
  21. Bergen Catholic (4)
  22. Wayne Hills (unranked)
  23. Ramapo (team to watch)
  24. Indian Hills (21)
  25. Lyndhurst (23)