New Jersey City University Athletics

 
Veteran high school coach Thomas Downes has been named the new head coach of the New Jersey City University men’s and women’s cross country programs. Additionally, he will serve as assistant coach of the men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track and field programs, which will return to NJCU as a club team beginning in 2015-16.
 
Downes, a successful, life-long runner, comes to NJCU with over 20 years of high school coaching experience. He served as the head boys and girls cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field coach for 16 years at County Prep High School. Additionally, he was the assistant girls track coach at Dickinson High School for five years.
 
“‘I am excited to bring Coach Downes aboard,” said Alice De Fazio, director of athletics, on Downes’ appointment. “His extensive experience and local ties will prove invaluable for our department.’
 
A 1986 graduate of Manhattan College, he began his collegiate career at NJCU when it was known as Jersey City State College, attending for a year and a half. Downes was a First-Team All-State and First-Team All-New Jersey Athletic Conference recipient in 1980. He competed in cross country and indoor and outdoor track for the Jaspers for Coach Fred Dwyer.
 
A 1978 alum of Hudson Catholic High School in Jersey City, Downes earned Second-Team All-County honors in cross country as a senior—the only year he competed in the sport in high school after discovering it late in his prep career. He ran for Coach Paul Lenczuk.
 
Downes’ love for running escalated after high school, when he became a competitive runner and marathoner. He emerged in 1980 when he was named the Road Race Awards Junior Runner of the Year by the New York Road Runners Club. In 1981 he took first place in a marathon for the first time, crossing the tape in the Aruba International Marathon as the winner in 2:29:31.
 
In 1984 and 1985 his running career peaked. In 1984 he was 83rd at the Boston Marathon (2:24:44). In 1985, he won the Spring Lake Five Mile Run (23:59) and placed fifth in the 1985 New Jersey Marathon in a personal-best 2:19:39. He nearly broke that mark when he finished an impressive 22nd overall at the 1985 New York City Marathon in 2:20:15. He was the long-time road race training partner of former West New York mayor and New Jersey State Assemblyman Sal Vega.

Downes, 54, is a physical education and driver’s education teacher at County Prep where he has taught for 21 years. He resides in Jersey City, NJ.