Evan Friedman and Alex Tarlow grew up less than a mile from each other on the south side of Westfield, a short jog from Tamaques Park. They each attended Tamaques Elementary School and Edison Middle School as well as belonging to Temple Emanuel.
But it wasn’t until they began attending Westfield High School in the fall of 2004 that they really started to get to know each other as they competed on the cross country and track teams.
Three years later they form the top 1-2 combination in the county and hope to lead another strong Blue Devil cross country team to its third straight county title. Last year at the Union County meet Friedman edged Tarlow 17:07 to 17:12 as they finished fourth and fifth for the top two performances by underclassmen, leading Westfield to a 46-85 victory over Roselle Catholic. They are friendly rivals who appreciate each other’s intensity.
“Evan and I are like running brothers. We are always looking out for each other and thoroughly enjoy one another's company on our long runs. Like brothers do there is a bit of sibling rivalry,” said Tarlow.
“We may be known to push the pace now and again because to us, there is always second place in a recovery workout. We feed off each others running and we look forward to seeing one another succeed in and out of the XC world.”
“We are competitive with each other but we really don’t care who wins as long as Westfield finishes 1-2,” added Friedman.
Martin feels fortunate to have such a talented a motivated trio to lead his team. Senior Brendan Berkowitz, the team’s third runner last year also returns and along with Friedman and Tarlow is a tri-captain.
“They have worked hard all summer and are coming off big track seasons. They are motivated and want to get to the Meet Of Champions. Evan, Alex and Brendan have been solid leaders thus far”.
Martin was also pleased with the condition of most of the team members.
“To be successful in the fall we encourage the boys to run as much as possible. We look at the running as being year round and do not make x-c a do or die situation-there are two more seasons of running left,” said Martin
While both are outstanding cross-country runners, they had different strengths during the track season. Tarlow was one of the county’s top 800 runners (1:55.60) and also ran on the 4 by 400 team as well as the mile. Friedman excelled in the 3200 (9; 49) and 1600.
“Evan is definitely more of a natural cross country runner than me,” said Tarlow.
In addition to Tarlow, Friedman and Berkowitz, Martin also has senior Neil Fitzpatrick returning from his top seven. Depth is never a problem on a team with around 100 athletes and the first few dual meets may determine who runs the championship races that start in late October. In addition to their Union County title the Blue Devils are also defending Watchung Conference champions.
Seniors Gus Gibbons, Tianyou Xu, juniors Josh Einbinder Dennis Elwell, Julian Applebaum, Eric Hagstrom, Andrew Marra, Joey Martoglio, Ross Tucker and sophomores Mike Fietkiewicz, Ryan Scrudato, and Tyler Cusick are all competing
for varsity spots. During a Saturday morning time trial at Tamaques Park it was easy to see why Martin can maintain such a large and enthusiastic squad in such a demanding
sport. The coach as well as assistant Chris Tafelski, a former Blue Devil runner
shouted encouragement to each runner, no matter what their skill level.
“We try to relate to each boy on the team each day. We include the science of the sport and try most all to have fun. We also encourage the boys, above all, to be good citizens,” said Martin.
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