WOODLAND PARK — Cresskill has been known for its football, and boys and girls basketball programs for most of the last 30 years or more. The Cougars have produced dozens of winning seasons and many league and state sectional championships during that time.”But there are a lot of kids who just aren’t football or basketball players,” said Cresskill cross-country coach Mike Pasciuto Monday at the NJIC championships at Garret Mountain. “This gives them a chance to be successful in the sport they participate in.”
Cresskill won the boys and girls championships in the Patriot Division, edging archrival Bogota by 10 points in the girls race and eight in the boys. The boys actually shared the league title with the Bucs. Bogota won the dual meet between the teams by one point, but it was the first league championship of any kind by the Cougar boys since the 1980 BCSL National title and just the second girls crown since 1984.
Secaucus swept the Meadowlands races, reversing a boys dual loss to Leonia, while the Dwight-Englewood boys won their first league title by capturing the Colonial. Rutherford reversed an earlier girls dual loss to Eastern Christian for the other team title.
But it was clearly the Cougars’ day as they swept league titles for the first time.
“It was the kids who really took control of the program this summer, the seniors who led the way,” said Pasciuto, who took over the head coaching job four years ago and has seen participation on the team triple from about 15 to nearly 50 runners at the Group 1 school. “They set up the times for everyone to do the summer workouts and they made sure everyone got their work in.”
Danielle Shapiro, for instance. The senior is the No. 4 runner on the team and was 13th in the meet Monday. But, according to Pasciuto, she’s the one that organized the morning runs that usually saw a dozen or more meeting early during the summer months for their daily workout.
“We motivate each other, the boys and the girls,” said Shapiro. “We would run together and then go out to lunch and do bonding things that built team spirit.”
“We’re not so much individuals as we are part of a unit,” said senior Josh Porto, who was third in the boys race, a step behind junior teammate Stefano Sangos.
Cresskill put all seven of its girls in the top 16, led by runner-up Reina Tamura, who trailed race winner Arianna Lopez of Palisades Park by 90 meters. The boys put six ahead of Bogota‘s fourth to earn their victory.
Dwight-Englewood‘s victory was actually its first since a 1983 win in the now defunct N.J. Association of Private Schools. But with senior Marc Rosenberg leading the way in third place, the Bulldogs put four in the Colonial Division top 10 and junior Clement Wong had a personal best at Garret to finish 15th.
“The kids have worked so hard and Marc, our only senior, has helped us triple our numbers with his leadership and talent,” said long-time coach Jerald Krautheim.
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