Burns returns to alma mater and River Dell wins 12th straight Patriot boys title; Ramsey rolls to second straight girls crown
It truly was an offer he couldn’t refuse. And Dave Burns has proved that you can go home again.
Burns was an outstanding runner at River Dell, class of 1998 and went to star as an intermediate hurdler at the Division III level at the College of New Jersey. When he graduated from college, he started teaching and coaching at Tenafly, where among others he mentored future stars like Josette Norris and Lexi DeGizzo. He then took a coaching gig at Old Tappan in 2018 and led the Golden Knights to the 2022 state group 3 girls title. He stayed in teaching at Tenafly, but had moved back to River Edge, with his wife and their two children, who are now in seventh and fourth grades, respectively.”
“I was really happy coaching at OT, but then when Mike Urso (Burns’ high school coach) decided to step back from the head coaching job, I reached out to Denis Nelson because this was an opportunity too good to pass up,” said Burns, who took the boys indoor and outdoor coaching job at River Dell after the high school season concluded last June.
“My wife Erin (formerly Cook, a star at Suffern and Manhattan) and I have run a youth track and field club in town for the last five years and I run the Oradell Swim Club. There had been conversations in the past, but I knew it was the right time to make the move.”
Thursday at their home track, the Golden Hawks won their 12th straight Big North Patriot title, 180-103 over Indian Hills, despite an impressive four event sweep by the Braves’ Max Daniels, continuing the priorities set by Urso (who remains on staff) and the rest of the River Dell program since Burns was part of the program a quarter of a century ago.
“We had more than 10 different seniors score at the league meet,” said Burns. “To have this many kids come out and work so hard as seniors is something has always been important for River Dell track under Mike and (girls coach) Michele Carcich and Coach Lou (veteran weight coach Sirignano).”
Senior winners included Luke Westlake (shot/discus), Aidan Grivas (800) and Alex Sharfian (1,600). The Golden Hawks also got a sprint double from junior Alijah Abraham and won the 4-x-400 relay.
Other seniors to score were Dean Marucci, Dinesh Doobay, Luke Schwanewede, Jack Evancho, Nick Berberian, Josh Hums and Jeromy Lee.
And now the emphasis shifts to getting as many athletes as possible to qualify for the State Meet of Champions in June. “We know good the teams are that we’re going to face from here on out,” said Burns. “That’s we’re going to focus on trying to gets as many kids on the bus as we can and that means the 4-x-100, 4-x-400 and 4-x-800 relays and the throws.”
Ramsey coach Matt Wynne had the luxury of depth and talent so that the girls did not have to extend many of the athletes who have been so important over the last two years.
But he made one exception.
“Kate Marie Monaco was going to be queen of the world today,” he said.
Monaco has had a stellar career at Ramsey with successful races from 200 to 3,200, Penn Relay miniwheels, many team championships and even a Bergen Meet of Champions 800 title.
But the senior standout, headed for Union College in New York next year, was missing one item on her agenda.
“She’d never won a league title before,” said Wynne. “She was injured last winter, got hit in the head before the league meet last spring and couldn’t compete and a lot of times (the now graduated) Christina Allen was in the way.”
But not on Thursday at River Dell. Monaco powered the Rams to a 166-126 win over a talented Westwood team, led by Brooke Wichmann’s impressive triple and a North Jersey leading 3,200 win by breakout cross-country star Alice Rappazzo, by winning the 800 and 1,600 runs.
By contrast teammate Adrianna Graziano, in the best pole vaulting form of her life, won her sixth divisional pole vault title (three in indoors and three in outdoors) and Jules Pensari continued her comeback from a back injury by taking the triple jump crown.
“there’s a lot of talent in this league and every event was full,” said Wynne. “The 30 girls we brought were the most we’ve ever had at this meet and we brought eight freshman, five of whom scored.”
Fort Lee rolls to an American sweep
Much like the Patriot division, the American division, also held on Thursday matched individual standouts against team depth and in both cases depth won out.
The Fort Lee boys won their sixth title in eight years despite missing several favored athletes in events because of injuries and an outstanding trio of stars at defending champ Dwight Morrow to score a 102-87 1/2 victory over Dumont and the Maroon Raiders.
“We had a lot of younger aand less heralded kids pick up for the absence of some of our stars,” said Fort Lee boys coach Trevor Hedges. “Jaden Balbuena was fantastic as he always is, winning the long and high jumps, and our other senior high jumpers Frank Caserto and Azel Orta all made six feet in the same meet. Jalen also broke up the Dwight Morrow sprinters in the 100.”
Demetrius Vonderlinden won the shot and took second in the discus and soph Adriel Lee took 14 points in the hurdles stepping up in the absence of team leader Amadou Traore. John Walsh won the 1,600 and the Bridgemen managed to score in every event but the pole vault, where Orza’s shoulder injury prevented him from competing.
The girls told a similar story, winning just three events, one less than Dumont’s Jenna Monaco did by herself, but Fort Lee managed to take lots of other places enroute to a 93-68 win over the Huskies.
“We filled up every event and tried to scoop up as many 2nds, 3rds, 4ths and 5ths as we could,” said Fort Lee girls coach Nicole Pacciani. “We just had three seniors score but a lot of our kids stepped up.”
Alexa Castro was the only senior winner, taking the triple jump and scoring in three other events. Jackie Martinez won the javelin and Chelsy Lewis the 400 hurdles, and the Bridgewomen managed to score in every event, getting a pair of places from seniors Olivia Pisinski and Irina Grigoryeva and two surprise seconds from freshman Daniella Pagan in the shot and discus.
West Milford boys pull off come-from behind half-point win in Independence boys; Lakeland returns to top of Independence girls
The Independence division has been home to five boys meets in its 15 year history won by six points or less.
But only one other boys meet in the 15-year history of the entire Big North Conference was as close as West Milford’s 115-114 1/2 win over Fair Lawn at Passaic Valley Wednesday. Naturally it also came in the Independence division when Lakeland held off Passaic Valley by 1/2 point in 2021.
This meet was so dramatic that the final outcome wasn’t decided until the pole vault and long jump competitions finished nearly an hour after the traditional 4-x-400 relay final running event.
West Milford won that event but Fair Lawn still held a lead of 4 1/2 points with the two field events still underway.
“Right before the relay, we got a clutch throw in the javelin by Aydin Deane, our quarterback, who we finally got to come out this spring,” said head coach Art Joecks, whose team had won by 19 points last year but graduated two outstanding versatile stars in Noah Traverso and Colin Menier. “He’s been throwing in the 110s all season, but he got one out 145 feet to get third.”
“Lorenzo Andrade had a spectacular meet for us, winning the 200, 400 and both hurdles races to keep us in it but Fair Lawn had two kids in the long jump and we just had one and our second pole vaulter was in seventh place in the vault with one vault to go at 10-6.”
It didn’t look promising.
But Tyler Meier, won had already won the high jump, jumped a personal best 20-0 3/4 in the long jump to grab fourth and hold the Cutters advantage in the event to just three points, giving the Cutters a 7 1/2 point lead with just vault to go.
West Milford’s Kyle Gloria led the whole way and won the event at 11 feet, but senior Constantine Soukas, whose twin Aidan had won the 800 and took second in the 1,600, had multiple personal bests en route to a 10-6 second place finish. That left it up to senior Massimo Balestrieri, who cleared 10-6 on his final attempt to “vault” four places up the standings for the crucial six third place points that clinched the win.
“To win by a half point makes every kid on the team who scored anything a difference maker,” said Joecks. “This was a great win for us.”
After a pair of tough losses to Wayne Hills the last two seasons, Lakeland girls coach Melissa Walker was stressed when the Patriots threatened to make the meet close early Wednesday. But the Lancers were helped by a great performance from their jumpers, throwers, middle distance runners and hurdlers and a great performance by West Milford’s distance team to regain the title, 142-126 over Wayne Hills.
“They’re such a good team but when we have a teammate that can scores points in every event (and win five of them) we have a great chance to score a lot of points,” said Walker.
The sophomore hurdles crew combined for a pair of wins by Jaelynn Vivanco and the Lancers added wins in the 400 (Alicia Gonzalez), 800 (Catherine Wiley) and 4-x-400 relay to lead the scoring. But the Lancers got points in the distances (Addy Parker), jumps (Gonzalez, Brianna Rodriguez, Annabel Meehan and Laiana Anderson) and throws (Bella Andriulli, Thalia Bennett, Emily Kebrdle and Madelyn Appel) to show their all around versatility.
Passaic Tech earns sixth straight Liberty sweep
Passaic Tech’s girls had a mission Wednesday at Passaic Valley despite being heavily favored to extend its reign over the Liberty division to six straight and 12 of 14 wins.
“County relays was tough even though we won it,” said PCT head coach Tiffany Tookmanian. “We wanted to come out (today) and dominate and show people who we are.”
Mission accomplished. The Bulldogs on seven titles and were at least third in every event but two en route to a 230 1/2-142 win over an improving Bergen Tech team. It broke the meet record of 229 points set by PCTI in 2022.
“Having freshmen like Tori and Vanessa Hackett in the 4-x-400 relay freed us up to use people like (triple winner) Jahzara McLean Abdullah in the open 200 and a freshman like Keilin Chui in the triple jump let us take her out of the triple jump and focus on her running,” said PCTI coach Tiffany Tookmanian. “We have people like Sydney Lalla and Eva Washington stepping up in the hurdles and we no longer to push Casey Noonan to run the open 400 so she can give us more in the 800 than we have.”
“We still struggle in certain areas to compete with the Ridgewoods and West Oranges at sectionals, but we’re getting there,”
The boys may not be quite as dominant as they have been in recent years but the Bulldogs managed to run away from a much more balanced division than usual with a 176 1/2-77 win over Bergen Tech.
The Bulldogs used wins by John Swaney (800), Victor Mielnik (1,600), Esmeidy Ortiz (both hurdles), Ethan Justin (triple jump), Kai Miller (javelin) and placed three athletes in nine of the 16 events to claim a sixth straight divisional title and 12th in 14 years in the division.
Hackensack boys earn first title since 2008; Ramapo girls get first solo crown since 2014
The Hackensack boys aren’t willing to wait.
The Comets, with a heavy junior-laden lineup paced by indoor 400 meter Bergen County record holder Seven Garcia, the DeCambre twins, Dustin and Devin and one of North Jersey’s top distance runners, Michael McGinnity won their first ever Big North Freedom meet championship at Demarest Friday, reversing a tight dual meet loss just three days earlier to perennial champion Ridgewood and clinching the crown with a near Bergen County record in the final event, the 4-x-400 relay.
The Comets defeated the Maroons, 115-107, ending a three year streak as the runners-up and earning their first title since the 2008 NNJIL B division championship. Because dual meets count equally with the championship meet, the two schools share the overall track and field title.
But on Friday, it was finally Hackensack’s turn.
“They’re not looking at it as we’re juniors, we’ll have another chance, they decided we need this right now,” said Comet head coach Jim Levitzke. “(Assistant coach) Kaliym Hazel pushes the right buttons with our sprinters and knows what they’re capable of and they just deliver the message every time.”
And the core of the team are juniors Garcia, the DeCambre twins, Jayden DeSousa and Eastside transer Jamar Robinson, the only senior in the group.
The five athletes combined for five wins and 62 points in the 100, 200, 400, 400 hurdles and relay (Devin DeCambre added a fifth place in the long jump) and McGinnity won the 3,200 and took second in the 1,600 to overcome Ridgewood’s obvious strengths in the distance races overall and a 1-2-3 sweep in the pole vault.
Garcia ran a ridiculous early season 11.18-21.74-47.34 individual triple in the 100-200-400, leaping into the top 25 all-time in Bergen County history in the 200 and third in the 400 outdoors, and closing to within less than .2 seconds in displacing all-time Comet legends the late Joe Dawkins, and Walter McCall, respectively, from the Hackensack record book.
Dustin DeCambre had a breakthrough day in 400 hurdles edging Northern Highlands junior Teddy Goebbert in the race of the day in 55.58 seconds and then the quartet of Dustin DeCambre, Devin DeCambre, Robinson and Garcia destroyed the field and clocked 3:15.80 (including an unofficial 46.8 anchor split by Garcia) in the relay, third fastest in Bergen County history, behind only the 3:15.15 run by Teaneck in 2010 and 3:15.43 run by Old Tappan six years later, both State Meet of Champions winning performances.
It hasn’t been quite as long a drought for the Ramapo girls, as the Green Raiders shared the meet title with Ridgewood a year ago and last won by themselves in 2014. But despite some late lineup changes and the absence of senior distance star Brianna Potaki, the Green Raiders used the star power of Sandra Vitolo and Bridget Cannon and spectacular depth to defeat the Maroons handily, 115-88.
“We sat some kids in some events and made some line-up choices because of the one day meet that might be different later in the year,” said Ramapo head coach Bill Manzo. “Bridget and Sandra were terrific as they always are and (freshman) Sofia DeVincentis had a nice win in the 400 (in a personal best 58.87 seconds).”
The key event may have been the 1-2-3 sweep in the shot put from Cassie Bergstein, Grace Gilbert and freshman Juliana Costabile which negated one of two Ridgewood distance sweeps.
Vitolo won both hurdle races impressively and Cannon blistered a 2:12.47 800, the fastest race by a North Jersey girl in three years.
But the key stat might be that all but 5 1/2 points (Maddy Klecha’s tie for fourth in the high jump and Shayna Braver’s third place in the pole vault) came from underclassmen.
“Jada Giordano won the high jump and placed in three events,” said Manzo. “We had 18 different kids score at this meet. It’s a great win.”
Demarest continues to dominate the National meets
For most of its 14 year history (the division was briefly discontinued in 2019), the National division has been essentially a dual meet between Northern Valley sister schools Demarest and Old Tappan, with Demarest having a distinct advantage.
That trend continued Friday at Demarest with both the Norsemen and Norsewomen earning their fourth straight divisional titles, but Teaneck became the first boys team other than the two Northern Valley schools to take first or second since the first divisional meet in 2011. Demarest’s boys won handily, 199-86 over Teaneck with Old Tappan third.
Demarest, the two-time defending state group 2 champions, showed talent and depth throughout the events, winning nine individual events, each win backed by at least one other Demarest scorer.
Noah Chang, who will run at Emory next year led the way with personal beats in both hurdles and took a surprise win in the 200 to lead the way.
“He was a little banged up at the end of the winter but as the weather is warming up, so is he,” said Demarest coach Mike Theuerukauf. “He’s also an alternate on our 4-x-400 and he helped us pull off a sweep in the highs, with all three kids (Chang, Liam Paneque and Adrian Cami) under 15 seconds.”
Liam Paneque, won the long and triple jumps, where he was the indoor state titlist and with Baxter Clark and sophs Brandon Alef and Gavin Paneque (his younger brother) combined for three wins and 49 (of a possible 54) points in the three jumps. Marco DeCroce fought off illness to win the shot and take in the discus and Luke Davis won the 800 and placed in the 1,600.
“This is what we work all year for,” said Theuerkauf. “The fun is just starting.”
The girls meet was probably closer than Demarest girls coach Mike Ippolito anticipated but the Norsewomen prevailed over Old Tappan, 159-132, despite a rare shutout in the throws.
“Maya Mikay has been struggling with a bad back recently so we sat her out today,” said Demarest coach Mike Ippolito, of his shot and discus ace. “We won lots of events on the track and competed well in the jumps but Teaneck and Tenafly just had some great individuals.”
Teaneck senior Zuri Williamson returned to the sprint form she showed as a freshman, winning the 100 and 200 and teammate Leslie Small held off the Demarest hurdlers, while Old Tappan’s Caroline Ognibene bested a quartet of 5-2 jumpers in the high jump and Tenafly’s Martina Mejias Lee had a wonderful days in the jumps, winning both the long and triple jump and pushing a great Norsewomen trio to 2-3-4 in each event.
Erika Gargano did lead a Demarest sweep in the 400 hurdles and soph Sophee Estrems and teammate Aviv Mosayov went 1-2 in the 1,600 (Estrems also won the 800), Gabrielle Rothstein had a stunning 57.62 second win in the 400, taking over the 1982 school record of 57.9 set by Hall of famer Marie McVeagh.
“We had some great performances from kids like Saar Tadmor and Olivia Rothstein too, and Kailey Attali had her best meet of the season.
Paramus Catholic boys and IHA girls run the United
Paramus Catholic always seems full of big name star athletes on the track team. This year’s group includes senior James Dely, the state indoor 55 meter hurdles champion who with Cicai Jaramillo gives the Paladins a hurdles duo as good as any in the state. Dely is also an outstanding sprinter and triple jumper/hurdler Jaidyn Johnson had developed into one of the state’s top 400 hurdlers and triple jumpers and is a possible state medalist in both events.
The Paladin trio did it’s thing in the Big North United meet Friday at Demarest, combining for six wins and two seconds and leading PC to its first ever league meet crown, 121 1/2-103 1/2-93 over Don Bosco and Bergen Catholic.
“This team is really talented, with all our stars, James, Cicai and Jaidyn, but we’ve gotten some great contributors and that made the difference in winning this year,” said PC coach Bryan Durango. “Then we got this new kid who was an Australian exchange student who plays basketball for us and decided he wanted to give track a try.
So Jayden Rodrigues came out in early April and a month won the high jump with a 6-2 leap edging teammate Albert Morfe on misses and taking fifth in the long jump at 20-6 and the Paladins had another potential star in progress.”
“He’s a confident kid and he’s learned what to do real quickly and I’m excited to see what he can do by the end of the season,” said Durango. “I think our emphasis this year to seek better competition each time we get out there is paying off.”
IHA extended its run in the girls meet to f
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