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BY JOHN SNYDER
OF PASCACK PRESS
WESTWOOD, NEW JERSEY—Westwood Track and Field is composed of amazing young athletes who are becoming accustomed to going far.
Recognizing their accomplishments at the 2017 USA Track & Field National Junior Olympics in Lawrence, Kansas, the borough council added certificates of appreciation to the kids’ haul of rankings.
In bestowing the certificates Dec. 19, 2017, Mayor John Birkner Jr. touted the kids’ “remarkable successes on the regional and national levels. It really testifies to your dedication to your sports, to your immense coaches, and working to master a lot of technique.”
“I’m really excited that you’re all here tonight,” Birkner said. “There’s a lot of enthusiasm over this program, which has grown by leaps and bounds over several years. We’ve been able to feed the high school team with outstanding athletes.”
After the presentation, Birkner pressed the kids into service judging a holiday outfit contest the governing body conducted to giggly amusement.
(The winners were Councilmember Beth Dell, whose outfit involved a chocolate brown guinea pig, Hershey, wearing a red bow and Santa hat, and Borough Administrator Ben Kezmarsky, who wore a necktie featuring the roly-poly droid BB-8 from the recent “Star Wars” movies.)
To make it to nationals, Westwood Track and Field—a club of more than 70 athletes overall, who represented Westwood in Kansas—had to show up within the top five regionally.
Westwood Track and Field athletes, participating as NJ Striders for state, regional and national meets, hail from Westwood, the Township of Washington, River Vale, and Hillsdale.
Certificates of achievement went to the following for throws, multi events, jumps, and running:
- Brady Galligher, 8U, stormed nationals, taking first in the country in javelin and eighth in shot put.
- Edward Rasmussen, 8U, took 20th nationally in javelin.
- Morgan Turner, 8U, ranked ninth regionally.
- Keegan Galligher, 9-10, placed 30th in shot put.
- Andrew Foote, 9-10, ranked fifth in shot put and, regionally, sixth in high jump.
- Maxwell Illuzzi, 9-10, ranked second in the region in javelin.
- Joseph LoSauro, 11-12, ranked fourth in the region in javelin.
- Jake Sembler, 11-12, ranked 8th in the region in javelin.
- Luis Felipe Ferriera Reis ranked 42nd in shot put nationally, fourth regionally.
- Marcus Cheema, 13-14, hurled 38th nationally in discus, ran the 800m for a rank of 2nd in the region, and hauled the 1,500m at 19th nationally. He is a miler, half miler, shot putter and discus thrower and qualified for four nationals in eight years (age 8, 10, 12, and 14) in the 1500m.
- Alianna Eucker, 13-14, of Bergen Tech and Westwood Regional, is a multiple state record holder.
- Max Finkelman, 8U, is a promising long jumper, ranked 20th in javelin nationally.
Eucker is third in the nation for javelin, 22nd for shot put, eighth regionally for high jump, fourth in the region in pentathlon, and “one of the truly great athletes of the program,” her coaches said.
Eucker has qualified for nationals annually since she started with the NJ Striders at age 7, qualifying for the 800m, 1500m, long jump, high jump, discus, shot put, turbo jav, and javelin.
She landed second place for turbo jav for her age group at last year’s nationals and holds the state record for that event, for age 9-10, at 89 feet, 2 inches.
The Township of Washington resident’s main sport is soccer.
“For a town this size to send the number of kids we have to nationals is unheard of,” javelin coach Nestor Oliver told the governing body at the meeting.
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Shot put and distance coach Dave Cheema agreed.
“Throwing is a technique and many of these kids know exactly how to throw. So they may not be physically big but with the right technique they are able to throw feet and meters more than their competition,” he said.
The program can use more distance runners, he added. Team applications—200 or so this year—have outpaced coaching capacity.
Many athletes, as they age out of the Strider program, circle back as junior coaches.
Cheema told Pascack Press that the program gives young student-athletes confidence, which becomes evident on the field and in the classroom.
The program’s website carries the slogan, “Always beating our personal record.” Cheema said the coaches just want the kids to have fun.
“We’re not terribly ambitious for the kids. We’d be fine no matter what as long as the kids are having fun. They’re not getting intensely trained,” he said.
Cheema, who competed for his college in India in shot put and discus—delivering that polytechnic school a bronze, and its first medal in 16 years—said he’s seen 8U kids from other programs at nationals one year who then are never heard from again, owing perhaps to pressure that ruins the activity for them.
“My son [Marcus] told me, You know what, Dad? You don’t have to train me. I know what I have to do.”
For more information, visit westwoodtrackandfield.org.