Head coach: John Murtaugh

Assistant coaches: Russ Grier & Brian Koch

Last year’s league finish: 4th place for the boys, 3rd place for the girls

Key returnees: Megan Thorn (Sr.), Mike Hayden (Sr.), Sean Donohue (Sr.), Vincent Laquidara (Sr.), Isaac Denbeaux (Jr.), Julia Parisi (Sr.), Olivia Catalano (Jr.), Justine Touzot (Sr.), Beibhinn O’Reilly (So.)

Key losses: Jeff Roberts, Ashley Evans, Nikki Criscuolo, Marlo Guastella (Sr.)

Roberts ran at the Bergen County Champions and the State Sectionals last season where he placed in the top 15 and top 10, respectively. At last year’s Manhattan Invitational, Evans came in 30th out of 142 against various runners from various states such as Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and Virginia. According to Grier, Guastella would have been a starting varsity runner this season, but she moved away and is no longer on the team.

Key newcomers: Beibhinn O’Reilly (So.)

Outlook: Koch is very satisfied with how the team is progressing thus far, as the runners seem confident and they all get along well. He mentioned a lesson about accountability that the team learned during one practice session.

“We talked about being accountable to ourselves, to work hard when we’re here. But more importantly, being accountable to our teammates, because your performance obviously helps the team out. And that’s what it’s all about. If everyone just works to the best of their ability, then collectively we can do good things as a team”

Koch believes that the seniors from last year set a great example that will help the team out for this season. “With veterans like that, hopefully they laid down the foundation for the underclassmen,” he stated. “They know the routines, and they know what they have to do to get to that level. And the seniors that we have this year saw how we were lead last year and hopefully they were relishing the opportunity to be the leaders of the team.”

Koch has high expectations for both the girls and boys teams but feels as though his runners have been overlooked and underestimated. “As a team on the varsity side for the girls, I expect them to compete for the league. And the boys, we’re the underdogs. No one’s really thinking about us, so I expect us to sneak up on some teams.”

Grier expressed a similar sentiment in terms of team success, “We’d like to be competitive in the league. And hopefully some of the individual runners can maybe get to All-League Honors and All-County Honors. I think that’d be great and I think that would be a very successful season for us.”