Track: Passaic Relays highlights second major weekend
The Passaic Valley boys track team has been a contender in nearly over the last five or six years, from league to county competition and even contending for sectional titles under head coach Joel Thornton and his successor, former Hornet Eric Getz.
Saturday they finally won a title that has been eluding them since the Doc Boverini Passaic County Relays was established in 1975. The Hornets came from behind to win the B division of the meet for its first-ever official Passaic Relays title by taking second in the 4-x-400 relay to edge West Milford, 114-111. Passaic Tech won its ninth A division title in 10 years with a record score of 148 points, winning 13 of the 16 divisional events, and defeated reigning champion Wayne Valley 148-71, the largest winning margin in meet history.
Passaic Tech won their fourth straight A girls title, 134-94 over Clifton and Lakeland its fifth straight B crown, 116-106 over West Milford.
Passaic Valley flips script, takes boys B title
The last two years, Passaic Valley took the first day lead but couldn't hold, finishing second to eventual champion Lakeland (2023) and West Milford (2022).
Not this time.
"I told them after Friday's events that maybe not going into day 2 as the leader would help,'' said Getz while celebrating his team's victory. "I told my guys that if they did what they could do, we'd have a great chance to win it. And they did exactly what they capable of doing.''
The Hornets took five divisional events, in each of the five areas of competition, taking the 4-x-400 (sprints), 4-x-800 (distance), 3x 400 hurdles, shot put (throws) and long jump. Nicholas Montiel, Basell Dahhan, Tavi Victoria, Brian Pizzaro and Tyler Gallardo were part of at least two gold medal teams with Montiel part of the 4-x-400, 4-x-800 and 400 hurdles teams.
But Getz spotlighted his weight team, especially shot putters Tristan Puerta, Sal Paniccucci and Brandon Veneziano, who dominated the event. "We were banking on a shot win and then the long jumpers came through at the same time,'' said Getz.
Lakeland gives new head coach a great start
They may have lost the superstars that helped the team to its four straight previous titles, athletes like Angelina Perez (now at Wake Forest), Abby Horevay (Lipscomb), Morgan Uhlhorn (a DIII All-American at NYU) and Shannon Harnett (Towson). Coach Damiano Conforti stepped aside after taking an administrative promotion at the school.
But Lakeland still has lots of talent, as they showed it, taking command on the second day after the first day of competition saw the top four teams within nine points of each other.
And if Alexa Goll isn't a superstar, she's awfully close to it.
The Bucknell-bound senior anchored the winning 4-x-400 and 4-x-800 teams, broke open the sprint medley with her 400 leg and had a leg on the Lancers' third place 4-x-200 team.
"She won three events and anchored the clinching relay in our dual meet against West Milford and at the Relays she helped us get 36 points,'' said new head coach Melissa Londregan Walker, the former Hawthorne star who took over for Conforti after being an assistant the last two years. "She can run anything from 100 to 800 meters and shows how good she is in every meet.''
But Lakeland has lots of depth including a freshman hurdle crew of Katrina Zahr and Virginia Rynkowski bolstered by first year senior Shannon Kincaid, a college ice hockey recruit that took a first and a second in the two hurdle events. Add in some great performances from Isabella Andriulli, Elisa Uzeiri and Thalia Bennett with 24 points in the throws and the Lancers had another win.
"It' such a joy to coach all these kids,'' said Walker, whose daughter Hope was part of two winning relays and two second place finishes. "They all contributed in every event."
Passaic Tech sweeps A titles for fourth time in five meets
Just three third places, in the 4-x-1,600, distance medley and high jump, separated the Passaic Tech boys from a perfect 160 point score in the A division. But the 148 points scored by the Bulldogs were six more than any team boys or girls have ever scored in the meet, which went to the current 10-8-6-4-2-1 format in 1992.
"This is the most complete team I've ever had,'' said Tech boys coach Jeff Cioletti, who's been the head coach for more than a decade. "We've got Rey of course (senior Reynier Galvez, third in last year's 800 at the SMOC and second this winter) and then we have (sprinter/hurdler) Jordan Lawton and (multi talented) Michael Vargas who will do everything for us.''
"We have several good throwers, several other good jumpers and a couple of young distance kids that will be very good.''
In all, 24 different Bulldogs earned gold medals with Lawton, Galvez, Vargas and Joel Perez earning four apiece.
The girls were almost as good, winning 10 events with 18 different athletes earning at least one gold medal. Calyse Villaneuva won four gold, and Casey Noonan, Jahzera McLean Abdullah and Sofia Moino all earned three each.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ Track: Passaic Relays highlight second weekend
