Point by Point | NJIT Magazine

Celebrating the Top Players of the Year

Highlander Athletics celebrated the achievements of student-athletes across its 19 teams at the 2023-24 Athletics Awards Banquet.

The male and female athletes of the year were Pablo Perez Ramos of men’s tennis and Maddie Stevens of women’s track and field, respectively. Tariq Francis of men’s basketball and Sarah Van Ornum of women’s cross country and track and field were named male and female newcomers of the year, respectively.

Ramos led his team to its first conference championship, winning the deciding point to clinch the 4-3 victory over top-seeded Incarnate Word. A three-time America East Conference Player of the Week, he helped the team achieve its highest ranking (No. 58) and most wins (19) ever.

Stevens earned two medals at the America East Indoor Track & Field Championship in 400m and the 4x400 relay, leading her team to its best-ever finish at the event. She also earned a bronze medal and All-East honors in the 200m run at the ECAC Championship.

Francis, who averaged 14.8 points per game, was the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association Division I Men’s Basketball Rookie of the Year and America East Conference Rookie of the Year.

Van Ornum was the top finisher at the Metropolitan and America East cross country championships and twice was conference Player of the Week.

_{Caption: Left to right: Tariq Francis, Maddie Stevens, Director of Athletics Lenny Kaplan, Sarah Van Ornum, Pablo Perez Ramos}

_{Photo: NJIT Athletics}

Basketball Recruits New Highlander Standouts

Men’s and women’s basketball are welcoming a half-dozen new players this season.

Newcomers on the men’s team include: Quentin Duncan, Malachi Arrington, Walt Andrews, Ari Fulton and Stefan Jimenez-Vojnic.
A key addition to the women’s team is Enya Maguire.

Quentin Duncan Duncan, a guard from Waterbury, CT, was a consistent scoring threat at Putnam Science Academy, which reached the 2023-24 Prep National Championship as the No. 1 ranked team in New England.

Malachi Arrington Arrington, a forward from Somerville, NJ, played high school basketball at Montclair Immaculate, which made it to the Non-Public B State Championship game in 2023-24.

Walt Andrews Andrews, a guard from Bridgeport, CT, played at Notre Dame West Haven, where as a senior he ranked among the top 10 prospects in Connecticut.

Ari Fulton Fulton, a guard from Fayetteville, NC, played at Westover High School, which during his senior year achieved a 29-2 record and won an All American Athletic Conference Championship.

Stefan Jimenez-Vojnic Jimenez-Vojnic, a center from Toronto, finished his high school career at The Academy of Central Florida in Orlando, where he averaged 13.4 points per game and 7.3 rebounds per game.

Enya Maguire Maguire, a guard from Belfast, Northern Ireland, is pursuing an MBA at NJIT after earning a bachelor’s in kinesiology sport management from Houston Christian University, where she played 100 games in four seasons. At the high school level, she playedat Ulidia Integrated College in Belfast, The Hun School of Princeton and club basketball for the Ulster Elks

_{Photos: NJIT Athletics}

Highlander Becomes a Yankee

Mark Leiter Jr., a pitcher for the NJIT baseball team from 2010 to 2013, is now a New York Yankee.

Leiter joined the Yankees’ bullpen
at the trade deadline in July, when
he was acquired from the Chicago Cubs in exchange for two minor league prospects.

After the deal, The Record reported that the Yanks had long scouted the right-handed reliever, who’s known for a high strikeout rate back to when he developed a splitter in college — a pitch that looks slow and straight to hitters, but suddenly drops out of the strike zone as it crosses home plate.

Even in his early days of throwing the splitter, Leiter struck out 20 batters in a single game for NJIT.

Other Highlanders have played in the minor leagues, but Leiter is the first to reach the major league level. The Philadelphia Phillies drafted him in 2013 and he advanced to the majors in 2017.

Leiter is part of a baseball family of pitchers. His father, Mark Sr., pitched for eight teams, including the Yanks, and his uncle, Al, pitched for the Yanks, Blue Jays, Marlins and Mets. His cousin, Jack, debuted this year with the Texas Rangers.

_{Photo: Courtesy of New York Yankees}

NJIT’s Highlander joined mascots from around the Garden State in Trenton to celebrate National New Jersey Day (July 27).

New Swimmer Is an Olympic Athlete

Ilias El Fallaki, a new member of the NJIT men’s swimming and diving team, represented Morocco at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

El Fallaki, a first-year business major at NJIT’s Martin Tuchman School of Management, competed in the men’s 400m freestyle. He won a heat, but did not place among the eight swimmers who advanced to the finals.

“Ilias was not expected to make top eight,” said Ron Farina, head coach of the men’s team at NJIT. “However, he did have a great swim, winning his heat!”

El Fallaki grew up in Spain, the son of parents who are Moroccan.

The swimmer made his international debut at the World Junior Championships in September 2023 in Israel and competed at the World Aquatic Championships in February, where he set the Moroccan national record in 800m freestyle.

El Fallaki is a three-time 2024 African Swimming Championships finalist, placing fourth in the 400m freestyle, sixth in the 200m butterfly and seventh in the 200m freestyle.

_{Photo: Courtesy of Ilias El Fallaki}