Clifton honors its coach and his dad by sweeping County titles by Paul Schwartz of The Record
The Clifton boys and girls team came to Monday’s Passaic County Indoor Track Championships with only one goal in mind – to win both the boys and girls meets in the same year for the first time since 1998 – and one name in their hearts: Michael Rogers.
Michael D. Rogers is the Clifton coach and Michael P. Rogers of Lodi was his dad, who passed away suddenly at the age of 68 on January 19. His team knew what their coach was going through and they wanted to bring some joy to his life in the midst of great sorrow.
And the Mustangs achieved their goal, with the girls scoring a record 145½ points to beat Passaic Tech by more than 50 points and the boys defeating the Bulldogs, 82-62, winning five events including Jordan Laceste’s indoor personal best in the pole vault.
“After coach’s dad passed away, we wanted to win this to help lift him up after his loss,’’ said senior Sarah Adams, who ran a huge PR for third in the 800 and ran a leg on the winning relay. “Winning this meet was a bog goal for him and for us and we ran tonight with coach’s dad in our minds.’’
“Coach would always tell us that his father knew all of us but we never met him,’’ said senior Sonny Ruiz, who continued his breakthrough season by throwing a personal best 48 feet to win the shot put. “He talked about his dad all the time and we wanted to win this for him.’’
The Mustang girls were never headed as senior Alenys Morales put together one of the greatest individual meets in county history, winning four events and never being threatened in any of the quad.
First she won the 55 hurdles in 8.73 seconds after running a personal best of 8.55 in the trials. She actually had to start four separate times in the event because of a series of snafus with the starter’s pistol.
Then she took the 400 by nearly three seconds in a speedy 59.46, another personal best. Her long jump of 16-10 was well off her best in that event, but was still enough for a nearly one foot victory and she capped her night with a meet record 25.83 in the 200, a third personal best for the evening.
Teammate Andrea Dubbels almost matched Morales’ feat with impressive wins in the 1,600 and 3,200 events and a second best in the 800, all personal bests.
Kevin Heredia was a triple winner for the Mustangs in the boys meet, winning the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 races seemingly without breaking a sweat. And his friend and rival Luis Peralta of Passaic won the 200 (22.28) and 400 (meet record 49.35) and also took second in the 55. But in two weeks they might finally renew their rivalry in the group 4 sectionals.
Other impressive performances came from PCT’s Shaheem Maple in the 55 (6.69) and Eastside’s Corey Powell in the 55 hurdles (8.07). Kennedy’s Jadon Watson (high) and Jacob Feliciano (triple) and Lakeland’s Hasson Klingen (long) took the jumps.
Leriann Alexander (7.56) of Eastside took the girls 55 and PCT’s Carly Spinnler (800), Sydney Shannon (pole vault) and Ashley Martinez (triple jump) and West Milford’s Kalleen Rose Ozanic (high jump) also won events.