The Jersey Journal, 26-Sep-15
By William Harrigan
With its athletics program classified in Group 1 for decades now, Weehawken is consistently one of the smallest high schools in Hudson County.
However, the Indians have added two new sports to the card this year, and so far the results have been very promising.
Cross country and girls tennis — both offered in the past but later discontinued — are back this year and already in the midst of their respective seasons, with the girls tennis squad taking on a JV schedule in 2015.
In just one month, interest and numbers have tripled for Kyle Mahoney's cross country squad. Back in late August, the Indians had only four runners in the entire program.
"We are up to 13 kids in the program, and the breakdown is five girls and eight boys," Mahoney said. "Once school started and students realized that we actually had a team, there was an incredible amount of interest in the program. We are definitely gaining momentum."
While the Indians went 0-3 in its inaugural outing — a quad meet with Dwight-Englewood, Hasbrouck Heights and Paterson Charter — they received a strong performance from senior Michael Stepkovich, who finished in 20th place.
"Michael has been our fastest runner so far. He actually played football before, so he's a very athletic kid and has been very serious about improving his times," Mahoney said.
Weehawken's fast improvement was evident in its team scores at its second NJIC quad meet, when the team fell to North Arlington, 36-21, and St. Mary's of Rutherford, 38-19. The first victory for the program came via a forfeit over Paterson Charter.
On the girls side, Weehawken's fastest performance of the season came from Miriam Janssen, who ran a 29:06 on that first NJIC race day. Fellow runner Isabel Jeffoni's fastest time to this point is 48 seconds off that pace, which she accomplished in the Season Opener Invitiational in Mahwah on Sept. 12. Teammate Alexa Castellano finished close behind Jeffoni on the day.
Diane Clarke — an English teacher at Weehawken — is piloting the girls tennis side, and has already experienced some success. Weehawken is 1-2 on the JV circuit, with senior Nicole Primero sitting at 3-0 in first singles. The Indians' victory came against Secaucus' JV squad. The sides have split a pair of matches to this point.
"The team will play nine JV matches this season, and we plan to have a full varsity team for next year," Clarke said. "Right now, we have eight girls in the program, so we have a full lineup and an alternate player."
With only two seniors on the club, Clarke plans to add more depth to the squad moving forward.
"A lot of our players have younger siblings who will probably join the team, and kids who are interested in tennis and want to play, now can," she said.
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