Congratulations to the following Divisional Champions:

Liberty Girls: Lyndhurst

Liberty Boys: Lyndhurst & New Milford (tie)

Patriot Girls: Emerson

Patriot Boys: Cresskill

Colonial Girls: Hawthorne

Colonial Boys: Glen Rock

Meadowlands Girls: Hasbrouck Heights

Meadowlands Boys: Hasbrouck Heights

Full Results are on Milesplit NJ.com

A big thank you to our officials crew who worked our 2 day T&F championship, Victor Wu and his timing crew, and Jeff Weiss our Meet Director. Thank you to Emerson HS, their T&F staff, and Athletic Director/Trainer Gus Paleoudis for hosting and working this championship for us!

These athletes stood out at the NJIC Divisional meets

Paul Schwartz

NorthJersey.com

The busiest week of the entire track season is always divisional meet week with 11 different divisions in the Big North and NJIC Conferences hosting meets at six different sites. Here’s the best of the NJIC meets.

Keep coming back all week to follow all the stories from all the meets. And at the bottom of the post, follow along with an updated performance list of the top 5 in each of the 16 league events.

Hawthorne girls overcome missteps; Glen Rock boys battle back

Everything went smoothly for the Hawthorne girls all season and despite only having a dozen varsity athletes it seemed like the Bears would breeze to the NJIC Colonial title Tuesday at Emerson H.S.

Not so fast.

A pair of false starts, one in the 400 hurdles and another in the 400, took away the margin for error for Hawthorne and allowed a very good Rutherford team with a terrific leader in senior Bella Sing to make things interesting.

“It was pretty shocking, especially the second one,” said veteran coach Gus Schell, whose team shook off the setbacks and finished strong to win its first league title since 2014 by 156.16-139.33 over the Bulldogs. “We know how good Brie (Brianna Andreoli) is, we know about Izzy (Isabelle Robinson) but you never know how the younger kids will develop.”

Andreoli and Robinson excelled as expected, with Andreoli, a junior, setting personal bests in winning the 100 (12.42) and 200 (25.54) as well as a huge PR in the javelin (115-1). The 200 time was particularly satisfying as it came an hour after she had false started in the 400. Robinson won the shot and discus, the latter with a personal best 100-1. She also added seven points in the jumps.

But points and great performances came from everywhere.

Freshman Sydney Hansen won the 400, after Andreoli’s false start and added thirds in the 200 and 400 hurdles. Freshman Ella Sachs was second in the pole vault and fifth in the triple jump. Soph Sabrina DeFilippo was second in the 100 and 200.

But then there was unheralded Ava Iovino.

“At every other meet, she ran one distance event and that was it,” said Schell. “Today she took second in the 1,600, fifth in the 800 and second in the 3,200 and when we needed a kid for the relay she ran that as well. That is a hero.”

Hawthorne’s boys had won the dual meet with Glen Rock by about 10 points. But Glen Rock coach Stacey Gallo knew she had some cards left to play.

“(junior) Aidan Carroll missed the dual meet because he was getting his COVID-19 vaccination and one of our 400 guys (soph Owen Neubart) had an injured thigh at the time,” said Gallo. “We knew they’d be back for this one.”

Seniors Jack Piazza and Jack Juliana stepped up, each winning an event and placed second in another and Bryce Fisher had big personal bests in both the 800 and 1,600 and ran a leg on the winning relay that clinched the 132-121 1/2 win over the Bears.

And Carroll and Neubart combined for 16 points in individual events, including a Carroll win in the 3,200.

“It was a well-rounded effort,” said Gallo. “Even in the throws we got 12 points from first year throwers.”

Hasbrouck Heights sweeps

The Hasbrouck Heights boys haven’t lost an NJIC meet since the league started in 2011. The girls haven’t lost since 2005 in the old BCSL Olympic. After Tuesday’s performance that doesn’t figure to end anytime soon.

Hasbrouck Heights coach Rob Brady speaks to his team after they sweep the NJIC Meadowlands track titles

The boys expected to be in a down year, scored 232 points, winning eight events and placing at least two athletes in 13 of the 15 individual events. The girls did even better, winning 10 events, getting six 1-2-3 sweeps and placing multiple athletes in every event. The girls scored a record 276 points, 61 more than the rest of the league.

“Back in the old BCSL we banged heads with teams like Cresskill and Lyndhurst and we see them in other meets like the county relays and county groups,’’ said Hasbrouck Heights coach Rob Brady. “There’s a fine line between working your kids through and getting them ready to give their best efforts in later meets.’’

It’s not hard to see why the Aviators have become a dynasty.

Brady singled out senior girls sprinter Kristine Robertson as an example for others to follow.

“She was our top sprinter as a freshman and sophomore and then Amber (Barrios) comes along and shines,” said Brady. “She’s battling a quad injury but not only did she continue to work hard every day in practice, she made sure everyone else is working just as hard.”

So in the traditional post meet recap on the track, Brady mentioned the 10 individuals who combined for 17 wins in the two meets, but only asked one to stand — Robertson, who was second in both the 200 and 400 runs.

“I told her that she was the girl I use to motivate every other kid today,” said Brady, the younger kids have to learn how much this matters.”

“The pandemic hit every team hard. and in our program our younger kids didn’t see how hard last year’s seniors like the Sedlmeir kids and Maliki Burrell work and how they got success because of that work. Kids like Kristine are telling them that story this year.

Standouts at NJIC Patriot and Liberty meets

Tuesday’s best performers by division:

Patriot girls: Briana Andreoli of Hawthorne continued her spectacular spring at the Colonial meet, winning three events with personal bests of 12.42 in the 100, 25.54 in the 200 and 115-1 in the javelin, all placing her in the top 20 in Passaic County history.

But Hawthorne coach Gus Schell mentioned one of the Bears’ two seniors, Isabelle Robinson in the same sentence with the same sense of wonder.

“Izzy’s the leader and sort of like a mother hen for these kids and anything I need for the team she’s willing to do,” said Schell.

Tuesday Robinson won both the shot and discus, the latter with a personal best throw of 100-2, and scored 7 points in the jumps.

“It’s great, because we always work together for a common goal,” said Robinson,, who will be part of the New Haven track team next year.

It’s no problem that Robinson is always out in the hinderlands of whatever track Hawthorne is competing at, far from the track where her teammates are competing.

“I’m always on the fence, whenever my event is,” said Robinson. “I have to cheer my girls on.”

Rutherford’s Bella Sing followed up her quadruple win at the Bergen C meet over the weekend with three more wins Tuesday, in both hurdles and the long jump. She was fourth in the 200.

Meadowlands girls: Hasbrouck Heights, of course, had most of the stars in the meet, with Isabella Drezek winning all three distance events and Barrios excelling in the 400 (59.73) and 400 hurdles (65.21) with personal bests.

Junior Megan Napolitano, who hadn’t picked up a vaulting pole for more than a year until spring practice started April 1, made up for lost time, winning the vault with a school record 9-7 and winning the 100 hurdles.

But the Aviators weren’t the only ones to excel in the meet. Freshman Jaidyn Reiser of Weehawken won both the 100 and 200 in impressive fashion, while Anna Memija of Saddle Brook won the long jump and triple jump, moving with four inches of the 10-year-old school record in the latter event.

But perhaps the happiest athlete of the meet was North Arlington senior Anna Lasek.

Lasek was tracking the 100 foot mark in the discus since sophomore year, but of course had no chance to throw a year ago. She threw 99-9 to win the Bergen D title on Saturday and Tuesday the magic number was on her mind.

“I was walking into the meet today, knowing I could hit 100 but the question was when? Was it going to be today? Was it going to be sectionals?,” said Lasek who just missed the state group 1 finals in 2019, finishing ninth.

The answer came quickly. On her second throw she threw 100-9 and on her next throw stretched it out to 102-7.

“I finally did it,” she exclaimed. “I cannot be more happy than I am right now. This is where I wanted to be going into states.”

Colonial Boys: It was very hard to keep a smile off Nathan Armstrong’s face. Asked if he was ready for the Passaic County meets and the state series to come, the Pompton Lakes senior grinned and said “oh, yeah”.

He might be understating the point.

Armstrong ran an amazing final 800 meters in 2:03 to finish a North Jersey leading 4:18.40 1,600, the ninth fastest time in Passaic County history, and then backed it up with a spring track best of 1:57.91 in the 800, capped off by a 50 second anchor leg in the 4-x-400.

“Last weekend (at the Garden State Track Club Last Chance qualifier) I ran the race the same way and ran 4:18.81. It really opened my eyes as to what I can do,” said Armstrong, who will run at Rider next fall. “If I can go out like this and come back so much stronger, who knows what I can run.”

Armstrong had a solid cross-country season but never got the breakthrough he was looking for. And he seemed a little stale early in the season. But no longer.

“I always seemed to go out fast and then die,” he said. “Not anymore.”

Lodi’s Ryan Snuffer is becoming one of the most recognized athletes. It’s not just his red hair and full red beard that sets him apart, it’s his pumping arms and legs and his relentless competitive nature.

Snuffer had a wonderful meet Monday, losing a tight 100 and then coming back with impressive wins in the 200 and 400, the latter in 49.90, the fastest time in Bergen County this year.

“I’m so intense on the track because I don’t want anything but first,” said Snuffer, who will run at East Stroudsberg State University next year. “I’m more serious in the 400 than another race, and it’s the most intense race for me. I’m got a drive to win.”

“He’s a great listener and he makes my job easier because of that,” said Lodi head coach Tom Manzo. “He’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever seen.”

Hawthorne junior Michael Palmer, a football player, came out for track for the first this spring and has had instant success, winning the long jump and setting a school record 44-8 3/4 in the triple jump, 1/4 inch further than the previous school best. Another junior, Jayson Harmer, broke the Bears’ 1600 record by considerably more, running 4:22.16, more than eight seconds faster than the previous mark.

Meadowlands boys: Another first year junior football player had the best performance in the Hasbrouck Heights dominated meet.

Tommie Lee Minaya, the nose guard on Becton’s dominant defense, won the 100, 200 and long jump and came within two inches of a fourth gold in the high jump. But he’s got bigger goals in mind.

“I want a rematch with (Waldwick’s) Rashawn (Markman) in the 100,” said Minaya. “I’ve got to make states.”

Markman edged Minaya for the group D 100 title a week ago and the two are in different sections at next week’s state sectional. Markman also scored the only two touchdowns Becton allowed all season.

Hasbrouck Heights had three double winners: Kunga Tsering in the high hurdles and high jump, Hunter Freschi in the pole vault and javelin and Evan Morrow in the 800 and 1600. The quartet of Evan Morrow, 3,200 winner Jake Porco, Andrew Oettinger and Cole Sonzogni scored 70 out of a possible 72 points in the three distance events.

Emerson wins first girls crown

It took a couple of seconds for Emerson coach Mark Ledgerwood to answer a simple question.

“How did it feel to coach the Emerson girls team to its first ever team title?”

The 10th year coach’s voice cracked with emotion as he tried to keep his composure to express his feelings.

“We’ve hosted these meets for a lot of years and every time it ends we watch everyone else celebrate on our track,” said Ledgerwood. “I wanted it for them.”

Emerson didn’t just end their drought with a cliffhanger. The Lady Cavos threw every other team over the cliff, scoring in every event except the 400, which they chose not to enter and wracking up multiple medals in most events.

A 1-2-3 sweep in the opening event, the pole vault, led by seniors Jessica Coyle and Alexa Gitto started the onslaught, a 4-5-6 finish in the 400 hurdles followed, and star sprinter Carli Sorvino led a sweep in the 100 (with Coyle second and Allie Lachman third).

By the time Coyle and freshman Olyvia Burrell went 2-3 in the high jump in the 5th of 16 events, the Lady Cavos had 79 points, just three less than runner-up Park Ridge scored in the whole meet.

“All the girls are relentless,” said Ledgerwood. “They all wrote “history” on their hands and they made it.”

The Cavos only won four events, the 100-200-100 hurdles triple by Sorvino, a junior, and the pole vault. But the depth overwhelmed the division and led to a 190-82 final margin over Park Ridge.

“I can’t even name all the kids who were so good for us, ” said Ledgerwood. “This is such a special group. The seniors remembered their freshman year when the chemistry was terrible and they made sure it didn’t happen this year.”

The Cresskill boys didn’t dominate quite as easily as the Emerson girls. But Chris Woodford’s group came pretty close.

Emerson led by 20 points after 5 events, but starting with Ben Klein’s solid win in the 400 and Alex Riccardo’s fifth place finish, the Cougars began to chip away. Freshman Josh Yoon won an exciting 200 with Klein third later in the meet and when Jerry Makris led a 1-4-5 finish in the javelin, Cresskill grabbed the lead with six events left.

A second win by Yoon in the long jump, a 2-3 in the re-run 100 (due to a technical malfunction) and a relay win, finished the job and Cresskill won their eighth straight title by a 157-107 1/2 margin.

“As a whole they get each other amped tp, and they feed off each other’s energy,” said Woodford. “If one guy is having a bad day, another one will pick him up.”

Lyndhurst and New Milford tie in Liberty boys

In contrast to the easy victories in the Patriot meets, the two Liberty divisions were slugfests, especially on the boys side.

Lyndhurst hadn’t lost a league meet since the NJIC was formed in 2011 and went undefeated in the dual meets. But New Milford and Leonia brought plenty of topflight firepower in the boys meet and the day-long battle reinforced that.

The lead seemed to change in every event until the 4-x-400 relay, the final event on the track. The discus was still going on, but it appeared that Lyndhurst would go 1-3, with Andrew Fernandez adding a discus win to his earlier shot success with Leonia and New Milford having little chance to earn points. New Milford needed to beat the Golden Bears to earn a tie in the meet.

Lyndhurst got off to an early lead and when New Milford anchor Robbie Tormo got the stick he was at least 15 meters behind his friend Jerome Maillairo, Lyndhurst’s fine sprinter.

But Tormo, who had earlier won three events, including the 200, 400 and 400 hurdles was ready.

“Our team was eager to win a league championship meet, especially since Lyndhurst had dominated us for some time,” said Tormo, a junior. “I have great respect for them because they’re a really good team, but I really wanted this.”

He got the baton from first year runner Andrew Medina and took off. He caught Maiilairo with about 150 meters to go and then the two ran side by side for the next 100 or so meters, before Tormo seemed to slip into a higher gear and pulled away to win by about four meters. The win earned New Milford a 135-135 tie with Lyndhurst with Leonia next with 117 points.

Tormo’s 400 split was 49.3, easily the fastest he’d ever run, made more impressive by Maillairo’s own 52 second carry, his fastest ever.

“Everything felt great and I was in the moment. It just felt right,” said Tormo. “It’s a huge milestone for me because I’ve never broken 50 before.”

Lyndhurst, by virtue of its dual meet season, earned the overall team championship, delighting veteran coach Tom Shoebrodge.

“I’ve seen anything like this,” said Shoebridge about the tie. “Both New Milford and Leonia have good kids and they all performed like champs. We don’t have a superstar but we’re a blue collar Lyndhurst team that just battles in every event.”

Seniors Fernandez and Josh Pizarro stepped up for the Golden Bears with double wins, Pizarro’s in the pole vault and 110 hurdles, and Maillairo contributed 16 points in his three individual events.

“We stole points everywhere,” said Shoebridge.

Maggie Fodera won the high jump and 110 hurdles and freshman Julia Tozduman won the long jump and scored 32 points overall for the Lyndhurst girls, who won a 7th straight title, 123-90 over a pesky New Milford team.

Standouts at NJIC Patriot and Liberty meets

The standouts at the four meets Monday:

Liberty girls: New Milford junior Emma Petrolia continued a family tradition, winning three events and barely missing a fourth.

Aunts Lynn and Lisa Petrolia were stars of the 1985-86-87 New Milford teams which won three sectional titles, three Bergen groups and two championships in the former BCSL National meet.

“They were really excited when I started running and started to do well,” said Petrolia, who won the 800, 400 hurdles and triple jump and lost by an inch in the long jump. “I did well in the 400 and the jumps as a freshman and then had a great winter polar bear season (setting marks in the 600 and 1,000 meter runs).”

“It gave me a lot of confidence,” said Petrolia, who hopes to break the school 800 mark soon. And like her aunts, she has company on the team. Her soph sister Abby was sixth in the 200, third in the high hurdles and finished second to her older sister in the 400 hurdles.

Like everyone else, Leonia junior Lucia Kutner lost the spring season to the COVID-19 shutdown, but then lost most of cross-country season to double patellar tendonitis which kept her from running for six weeks in the fall.

“I took my time getting back and did some little swimming on the team in the winter as my training became to come back,” said Kutner, who ran a brilliant tactical race and outkicked Lyndhurst’s Kayla Carrino in a personal best 5:30.67 in the 1,600 and then easily won the 3,200 in another PB, 12:23.68. “Kayla beat me in the (C division) 1,600 on Friday and she went out quickly (Monday).”

So Kutner sat on Carrino’s shoulder, and sat, and sat.

With 200 meter to go most watching expected her to start her kick but Kutner knew better.

“If I kicked at the 200 I’d probably die out before the finish,” she said with a laugh. “So I went with 100 left.”

The late move carried her to victory.

Ridgefield’s Kylie Castillo continued her sensational freshman season with a 100-200-400 triple getting more impressive the longer the distance. The 400 time of 59.78 confirms her status as a sectional contender. Alyssa Craigwell of Secaucus is another frosh sensation winning the shot and discus and taking second in the javelin.

Patriot Girls: Carli Sorvino started running in races when she was only 8 years old. She ran well but quit after a while, because she’d get too anxious before and after a race. But she rejoined the sport in eighth grade and both she and the entire Emerson team is very glad.

“Track is my passion,” said Sorvino after she dominated the 100, 200 and 100 hurdles for the second time in three days, after sweeping the same events at the Bergen D meet. “As I got older and more mature, I found a way to deal with my anxiety, trust my training and just go out there and perform.”

Sorvino is hoping to capture school records in the 100 and 200 (she already owns the hurdle mark) and is especially close to the 100 record set by state medalist Sophie Castronovo in 2018.

Soph Danielle Tilp of Cresskilland junior Kiley Mironenko of Waldwick also built on strong performances at the Red Littler Bergen County meet last weekend. Tilp won the 800 1,600 and 3,200 handily and Mironenko swept the three jumps.

Liberty Boys: Tormo, of course was the big star and the double wins from Pizarro and Fernandez led Lyndhurst as all three athletes were major factors in the ultimate tie. But they weren’t the only standouts.

Leonia’s Matt Cortez ran a solid tactical 1,600 and it looked like he was saving something for his second race the 800. He was.

“Today was the day to break 2,” said Cortez, who ran hard from the gun in the 800 and never let up, running 1:59.96. “The weather was nice and everything kind of aligned perfectly. Today was all about breaking 2.”

“It symbolizes getting to the next level,” said Cortez, who is undecided about college. “When I got near the finish line I saw the clock and I thought I can do this. It was really awesome.”

Cortez led a terrific Lions distance team, which scored 61 of a possible 72 points in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200. Others who contributed included Joshua Gelayder, Matt Kalendar, Ben Leynse and Jack Schuller. Only Cortez graduates.

New Milford’s Kaden Stevens doubled the long and triple jumps.

Patriot Boys: Jason Ballen of Midland Park continued his steady progress in the throws winning the shot and discus and taking second by just six inches with a personal best in the javelin. Yoon won the 200 and long jump and might be the best freshman boy in North Jersey and Thomas Gibbard of Emerson doubled the high jump and 400 hurdles.

Rich Weissenborn of Park Ridge is comfortable controlling the race from the front or by sitting behind the leader and kicking it in. He took the 1,600 and 800 in different ways, controlling the race from start to finish in the 1,600 and outkicking Brandon Tilp of Cresskill in the 800.

“I’ve been working hard all year and facing good guys and it’s helped to bring my times down. “It’s good to set the pace in a longer event and hold on. But I also like to use my kick,” said Weissenborn, a senior.

Paul Schwartz covers high school track and field for NorthJersey.com. For full access to live scores, breaking news and analysis from our Varsity Aces team, subscribe today. To get breaking news directly to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter and download our app. Email: schwartzp@northjersey.com Twitter: @northnjtrack

NJIC Track & Field Divisional Championships