Athletes Of The Week: Nicole Anerios and Doug Pastore

Nicole Anerios

Junior Nicole Anerios is carrying her success from the indoor track season into her season with the girls’ varsity track team this spring.

During her indoor season this Winter, Anerios high-jumped 4’8” and finished tied for third at the Sectional Meet to qualify for the State Group I Championships, at which she tied for seventh in all of Group I with a jump of 4’10”, said head coach Corey Arnold.

The spring season has started of well for Anerios, who was a quadruple winner against Oak Knoll, taking first in the long jump, high jump, triple jump and pole vault.

More recently against Kent Place on April 25, Anerios jumped 4’8” in the high jump and 12’ 9½” in the long jump, placing second in both events and first in the triple jump.

But this outstanding fielder didn’t start off competing in the field events. Anerios mainly competed in the 200-meter run on the winter and spring track teams during her freshman year.

“Freshman year, I was sprinting and then I started high jump last winter. I didn’t really like sprinting that much and then I thought ‘maybe give [high jump] a shot,’ and I did and I loved it,” Anerios said.

Although Anerios is excelling in her individual events, Coach Arnold said she is always willing to lend a helping hand to others on the team.

“Her greatest contribution has been helping our less-experienced athletes improve,” Arnold said. “She has been a tremendous mentor, particularly with the high jumpers and pole vaulters.”

Today, Anerios will compete against Brearley with the rest of the track team at home, beginning at 4 p.m.

“I haven’t really heard of them having any great competition. For the entire team overall, it should sort of be an easy meet,” Anerios said.

The team will also compete in the Union County Relays this Thursday and Friday, and Anerios is confident the team will perform well.

“For the Union County Relays, it should be pretty interesting. I know in Union County, we have a lot of good competition like Governor Livingston… they have good jumpers,” she said. “I think we have a good shot overall. With all of our events, I think we’ll do pretty well.”

As for her personal goals, Anerios is looking to break 5 feet in the high jump by the end of the season. Her current personal best is 4’10”.

Although it’s over a year away, Anerios said she is thinking about continuing her track career into college.

Doug Pastore

Senior Doug Pastore is in the middle of great season of pitching for the boys’ varsity baseball team. But that doesn’t mean the starting slugger and his team haven’t faced their fair share of challenges this season.

Pastore has continued to provide solid performances for his team recently, especially after striking out 10 players in five innings against Oratory Prep earlier this season.

Against Abraham Clark on April 26, Pastore pitched two innings, giving up one hit and striking out a few batters. The slugger didn’t pitch a full game because of the county tournament game coming up later that weekend.

“We just came out and hit the ball right away, and everyone was hitting and it worked out nicely. Multiple pitchers got in,” Pastore told Patch last Friday morning. “My coach didn’t want me to throw a full game because we have a big game this weekend, especially if we win today, because it’s the 1st round of the counties.”

Pastore didn’t pitch against A.L. Johnson on April 27 so that he could rest before the possible county tournament game later that weekend. The team lost 4-2.

“In the Johnson game, we came in expecting to play a pretty good team and we did,” Pastore said. “We got a good performance from our pitcher and we didn’t hit the ball as well as we would have liked to, but we stayed in the game and lost it later. We played a good game.”

The Pioneers played St. Mary’s in a preliminary county tournament game on Friday afternoon and Pastore, who did not pitch, was confident the team could pull out a win.

“We mercied St. Mary’s last week because we were 10 runs up. But we’re supposed to be facing a very good pitcher who threw a no-hitter against Union Catholic,” Pastore told Patch last Friday morning. “We’re expecting it’s going to be difficult hitting. Pitching is not going to be the issue, but hitting will be the challenge tonight.”

Although the team unfortunately lost 3-2 to St. Mary’s, Pastore, who played first baseman yesterday, performed well.

He followed a single by leadoff batter Joe Meyers and an opposite field bloop double to right by Stephen Zimmerman, with a shot to left-center for a two-run double to put New Providence quickly up 2-0.

Pastore also kept the game alive with a single to center on a 2-2 pitch in the seventh, going 2-for-3 with a walk and two RBI.

The senior slugger said both today’s game against Roselle Park and Thursday’s faceoff against Oratory Prep are very important conference games.

“[Those games] will decide who wins the conference because we’re playing the top two other teams in the conference, Roselle Park and Oratory,” Pastore said. “We beat Oratory the first time we played them and lost to Roselle Park. Roselle Park beat Oratory.”

Looking ahead to the State Tournament, Pastore believes his team can go further than last year.

“In the State Tournament, we’re going to get into it and play in it,” he said. “Last year, we went to the second round and lost to a very good team in Whippany park, but I think we’ll be able to go a lot deeper this year.”

As for his personal goals and outlook for the rest of the season, Pastore said he will continue to do his best.

"I’m just trying to go out there and get my team some wins. Just go out there and get my team some quality starts so we have a chance to win,” he said. “We’ve been playing well. If we stay in games, we can play with anybody and we just have to keep going after it.”

Pastore will attend Richard Stockton College of New Jersey this fall and is currently speaking with the coach about walking onto the baseball team.

Congratulations, Nicole and Doug!

Our next Athletes of the Week column will run as normally scheduled this weekend.