When NJIT revived its men's cross-country program and added a women's team for the first time ever, Adalberto M. Alonso, P.E., was the ideal candidate to coach both programs.
Alonso spent the last 19 years as the head men's coach at Stevens Institute of Technology, and was the only coach in the 11-year history of the Ducks' women's program. He was the youngest head coach at Stevens and among the youngest collegiate coaches in the nation. Stevens's men's teams won their final 53 dual meets under Alonso, and never had a losing season. His women's teams were 28-12 and won their last 18 dual meets.
Alonso was named Independent Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 1993, 1995 and 1996, and had produced 34 all-conference runners. He was also the head men and women's track and field coach at Stevens for the last six years.
As an undergraduate at Stevens, Alonso was instrumental in making cross-country a varsity sport. He was president of the Ducks' club team his first two years, then as a senior led the young varsity squad to the IAC championship.
Alonso was recognized for his athletic accomplishments as a student and coach by being inducted into the Stevens Athletics Hall of Fame in 2006.
Coach Alonso enters his eighteenth year at the helm of the Highlanders. In the inaugural year, the men had a 2-1 dual meet record with a 8K 5-person average of 33:12 while the women had a 3-1 record with a 5K 5-person average of 24:13. In the first 3 years, the cross country team had climbed from the bottom of the 12-member CACC conference in 2003 to the top of the conference by 2006 including our first Conference champion Umar Saeed in 2005 who garnered the CACC MVP and Newcomer awards. NJIT also received 5 CACC All Conference, 3 CACC All Academic and D2 team NCAA All Academic awards,
With NJIT’s decision to start the transition to Division 1 in 2006, new sports had to be added. Varsity Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field for men and women became the first 4 sports to be added and they did not have to look far for a new Head Track & Field coach either. In 2006, NJIT joined the Collegiate Track Conference (CTC) and the Independent Collegiate Conference. In 2007, Umar Saeed became our first CTC XC champion. In the spring of 08, Umar Saeed wins the CTC 5k while Amanda Hefferan becomes our first female conference champion in the 3K steeplechase.
In 2008, NJIT joined the Great West Conference. The men and women teams combined to break 33 cross country school records, 1 GW 1st team All Conference runner, 1 GW 2nd team All Conference runner and culminating with our first 2 time ECAC All East recipient and IC4A runner up, Umar Saeed.
In 2009 NJIT received its first XC GW Champion/Runner of the year as well as first IC4A XC Champion (Christian Baumbach). Also for the first time we had 2 GW 1st team All Conference runners as well as 2 All East Recipients (Christian Baumbach and Umar Saeed). The winter season saw our first indoor GW Champion (Josh-Erik Dolisca, Weight Throw) as well as our best team finish in the Collegiate Track Conference (2nd). In the spring we had our first outdoor GW Champion (Christian Baumbach, 5000m) as well as multiple all conference athletes. Our first year of NCAA Championship eligibility saw our women’s team receive academic All American for both XC and Track & Field.
In the Spring of 2011, Josh-Erik Dolisca became the first person to win the Hammer Throw.
In the Spring of 2012, (Javelin) and John Porteous (400H) took home GW conference titles and our best finish in those respective events.
The 2012-13 season, our last year in the Great West conference was highlighted with our best XC team finish (2nd) which included 3 XC all conference athletes. The spring season had Kelsey Jackson (HJ) become our first GW conference champion.
The years 2013 and 2014, NJIT competed as an independent and continued to have success with numerous records broken.
In The Fall of 2015, NJIT raised the bar again and joined the highly competitive ASUN Conference. That first year the XC men averaged 27:51 and women 22:23 for 8K and 5K respectfully. The indoor season saw Kwadwo Banahene(Triple jump), Alex Ortega(400) and Jason Poppe (High Jump and Heptathlon) make all conference. The spring season had Michael Haraka (Hammer), David Singer (Javelin), Frankie Primerano (Javelin), Alex Ortega(400H), Men’s 4x100, and Pritinder Singh(Decathlon) make the podium while Karen David (Javelin) became the 1st woman to make all ASUN conference.
The 2016-17 indoor season had Elisabeth Paulina (400), Calvin Gould(PV),Daniel Leung(Long Jump),Printinder Singh(Hep) and Issa Feknous(HEP) make the podium.
The spring highlights included our first ASUN Champion with Erick McNamara winning the Javelin as well as Alyssa Mitchko(Jav), Alisa Scivetti(Jav), Men 4x100 and David Singer(Jav) all making the podium. This year we received our first NCAA public recognition award.
The 2017-18 season saw the opening of the new Wellness Event Center (WEC) which was a game changer for our program. Season highlights included our first indoor ASUN champion with Calvin Gould winning the Pole vault and he was joined at the podium by the Women 4x400. The spring had the highest medal count at ASUN Outdoor Championships with Issa Feknous(PV) , Alyssa Mitchko(Jav), Men 4x400, as well as 2 gold medals from seniors William “Blake” Brancato(10K) and Erick McNamara(Javelin) make the podium. Erick became our first double gold medalist in our short ASUN history while Blake leaves with no less than 5 school records. The Highlander men also finished 3rd in the Outdoor METS conference champions after only 2 years in the conference. The men broke 10 indoor records and 9 outdoor records while the women broke 10 indoor records and 6 outdoor records. We also had 30 top 5 marks indoors and 26 outdoors for the men while the women had 19 indoor and 19 outdoor top 5 marks. Academically, both men and women cross-country and track & field programs were recognized as All Academic teams. This year we received our second NCAA public recognition award.
The 2018-19 came to a close as another successful year. The indoor season had Kwaku Amponsah double medal(Long Jump and 60m) and Pritinder Singh (Heptathlon) make all conference. We had 21 indoor school records broken and 35 top-5 marks. This was also the first year the team was selected to compete in the prestigious Millrose Games. In the Spring season we had a new ASUN Champion with senior Alex Ortega winning the 400 Hurdles and qualifying for the NCAA Regionals while Pritinder Singh(Decathlon), Connor(Decathlon), Nassiem Chandler (Long Jump) and Ryan Budhu (800) also visited the podium for all conference distinction. We had 14 spring records broken and 38 top-5 marks. The men and women repeated as All Academic teams. This year we received our third NCAA public recognition award.
The 2019-20 campaign was limited to cross country and indoor track due to the COVID-19 public health crisis but the Highlanders still produced a number of notable accomplishments. In cross country, both Highlander teams finished in the top three in their Highlander XC Challenge, with the men winning the event with a new 5-person average of 25:45 and our first time with 5 runners under 26 and the women having 3 runners under 19 for our home course. Ryan Budhu earned All-East honors at the year’s IC4A/ECAC Championships and finished in the top ten at the Metropolitan Championships. This XC season, we had a total of 8 new course records and several top 5 and top 10 All time marks. In track, Jacob Leigh and Miku Okada made ASUN history for the Highlanders with their ASUN Weekly honors on January 15. Leigh was named both Field Athlete and Freshman of the Week, with the latter being a first for NJIT in the ASUN. Okada’s Field award was also a program first for the Highlanders. The men’s 4x400 relay team of Matt Bacchi, Eugene Graves III, Ryan Budhu and Leigh nearly medaled at the historic Millrose Games, taking fourth place in the event. This indoor season we had 11 new records broken. Academically, all four teams (MXC, WXC, MTrack, WTrack) once again earned USTFCCCA All-Academic honors and represented NJIT well on the ASUN’s Academic Honor Roll lists. In addition, men’s cross country was one of three NJIT teams to earn NCAA Academic Performance Public Recognition.
Community service has always been close to Coach Alonso’s heart. Athletes should be role models and therefore should be involved in community service projects early on. Just looking back only 4 years, NJIT cross country and track athletes have been involved in no less than 29 projects. The highlight came in the spring of 2006 when the team organized their first “24 hour Make-A-Wish” relay to raise funds towards the CACC Conference foundation goal. This single event raised more funds than any of the other 11 Universities in the conference. This event has now become a department wide event with different foundations as recipients. Meanwhile Alonso’s squads continue to lead all teams in total funds raised.
Coach Alonso believes that the combination of academics and athletics are instrumental for success in the corporate world. The team members are assigned duties within the program, which allow them to develop leadership/management skills that will serve as a foundation for future development. The team also hosts several very successful home meets (2 in XC and 1 in Track & Field) as fundraisers for the program.
Alonso earned a bachelor of engineering degree in electrical engineering from Stevens in 1983, MS in Computer Science in 1985 (Stevens) and an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University in 1988. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi Honor Society as well as a licensed professional engineer in the state of New Jersey and has several Level-2 coaching certifications from the United States of America Track & Field (USATF). As a Senior Principal Engineer with Kearfott Guidance & Navigation Corporation (A world-class developer and quality producer of precision state-of-the-art navigation & guidance systems), Alonso has worked on sophisticated electronic projects for the NASA Space Shuttle and other Space/Air/Land/Sea military programs. He resides in West New York, New Jersey.
