By: Sean Moylan
Steve Alustiza has been coaching indoor (and outdoor) track and field at Northern Burlington County Regional High School for roughly two decades and he knows what he’s doing.
Currently, the terrific and patient NBC head coach is forming the nucleuses of what should be some great relay teams come this spring.
In Sunday’s NJSIAA Group II Indoor Track and Field Individual Championships at Princeton’s Jadwin Gym, NBC junior Jason Castaldo gave everybody a little taste of what to expect come this spring with his 55.86 second 21st-place finish in the 400 meter race.
In the coming weeks Castaldo will most likely get that time down even more. However, he does not want to peak too early.
NBC was missing one of its best distance runners, Matt Melillo, on Saturday.
However, Northern’s Dan Bowden, who is also a great talent, ran a 4:54.21 time in the mile to capture 30th place.
"He (Bowden) wants to run faster," said Alustiza, who has seen Bowden run much better times in recent practices.
Meanwhile senior Dave Reed took 42nd in the 800 with a 2:14.52 time and junior Ben Berben placed 47th in the same race with a fine 2:15.28 time.
What made Berben’s time even more impressive is he was competing with a hurt knee.
In a huge field of runners, sophomore Aaron Rask took 60th in the 55-meter dash with a 7.34 time.
"He (Rask) ran well enough. That’s his first race of the season," noted Alustiza.
Freshman Matthew Palmieri also competed in that race.
Sophomores Caleb Walton and Chris Patterson both competed in the 200, while junior Dave Rogers competed in the 400.
On the girls’ side the competition was so fierce that sophomore Michelle Reed ran an excellent 2:38.58 time in the 800 and only placed 40th.
"She’s probably the hardest worker on the girls’ side," said Alustiza of Reed. "She’s a throwbackshe’s an ‘old school’ athlete."
Speedy sophomore Morgan Golden ran an 8.01 time in the 55-meter dash to grab 35th place.
Meanwhile, freshman Megan Molnar had NBC’s best finish on the girls’ side by placing 33rd in the 200 meter race with a time of 28.69.
"She’s (Molnar) digging this track thing," laughed Alustiza, who loves the 9th grader’s enthusiasm.
Junior Natalie Conger ran an excellent 6:17.34 time in the mile to take 58th place. Senior Allison Cooper’s 6:21.96 mark was good enough for 60th place overall.
Junior Casey D’Arcy placed 60th in the 400 with 1:09.95 time and she also competed in the 55-meter dash. Freshman Amy Loesser ran in the 200.
"Group II and Group III are tough," added Alustiza.
NBC is not done yet, however. Alustiza recently added a meet at Widener to his team’s schedule. That meet will be held on Saturday. In the meantime, the Greyhounds are all slowly getting their times down. They’ll be ready for the spring.

