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Capristo, Chesnakova, Fischer, Gearity Elected To Athletic Hall Of Fame

Montclair, NJ – The Montclair State Department of Athletics is proud to announce Jon Capristo (Men's Lacrosse), Anna Chesnakova (Volleyball), Tom Fischer (Football), and Heather Gearity (Track & Field) as the newest inductees into the Montclair State Hall of Fame.
 
The quartet, which becomes the 46th class of Hall of Fame members, will be enshrined into the Hall of Fame on Tuesday, September 26, at the Valley Regency in Clifton, NJ. The newest members raise the total number of Hall of Fame inductees to 231 and will be the first class inducted since 2019.
 
Jon Capristo (Men's Lacrosse, 1986 – 1989)
Jon Capristo backstopped the men's lacrosse team to a 39-14 record over four seasons, including the only undefeated team in school history as he went 15-0 during the 1989 season. The 1989 season was punctuated with a 10-3 victory over Kean University in the ECAC Championship. Capristo earned First Team All-Knickerbocker honors after posting a 15-0 mark with 133 saves while allowing a mere 54 goals, and added a goal and three assists from his goalkeeper position.
 
Capristo finds his name throughout in the record books for not just Montclair State but across all three NCAA Divisions. He is the Montclair State season-season leader with a 4.32 goals-against average. The 4.32 goals against average set a Division III record and stood for 32 years before being eclipsed in 2021. Across all three divisions, the mark is currently the sixth lowest ever recorded.
 
The Montclair, NJ native holds the second and third spots on the single-season leaderboard in wins (15 – 1989, 14 – 1988), the second and fourth ranking in save percentage (.711 – 1989, .668 – 1987), and fifth in goals against average (6.85 – 1987). He holds the school record with a .657 save percentage and is second with 39 victories and a 7.10 goals-against average. The two-time All-Knickerbocker selection is also fifth all-time with 455 saves.
 
Jon and his wife of 30 years and their three daughters live in Huntington Beach, CA. As a Project Controls Manager for Matrix Service Company, Jon supports small and mid-size capital construction projects in the Pacific Region. Jon works on home improvement projects in his spare time and loves to travel.
 
Anna Chesnakova (Volleyball, 2006 – 2009)
Anna Chesnakova was a driving force in helping the Montclair State volleyball team make the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history during the 2007 season, leading the Red Hawks to their second NJAC Championship. A three-time Second Team All-NJAC performer, she made her mark early in her career as she posted 350 kills from her middle position, then the fourth most in single-season lore. She also tallied a school-record 135 total blocks, which is still number one today. During the 2007 NJAC Championship year, Chesnakova was 11th in the NJAC with 351 kills (then the third-best in school history) and in the conference in hitting efficiency.
 
During her final season at MSU in 2009, her 192 kills and 103 rejections helped Montclair go unblemished during the NJAC regular season at 8-0 and closed out her career as the program leader with 469 blocks and was just the third person at the time to record 1,000 career kills. Presently, Chesnakova holds the No. 1 spot on the career leaderboard for total blocks (469) and attack percentage (.293) and is sixth in kills 1,080.
 
The East Brunswick, NJ native hit a school-record .923 against Stockton in 2009 and holds three of the top four spots in blocks in a game, including the second-place with 15 against Buffalo State in 2006. Additionally, her 25 kills against in-state rival FDU-Florham are the fourth-most in a match, while her eight solo rejections in that game are third. Chesnakova is listed four times, including the first and second, on the single-season block list, and is third all-time with a .356 attack percentage in 2008.
 
Anna resides in Bridgewater, NJ, with her husband (and college sweetheart) Owen Amster, a Montclair alum, with their two children. She works for the School District of Chatham as a High School Physical Education and Health Educator. While at Chatham, she served as head volleyball coach of the girls' volleyball program from 2010-2021 and created the first NJSIAA boys' volleyball program in 2017. In 2022, utilizing many of the skills and experiences obtained from her Montclair education and her graduate degree in 2022, she created a Leadership Education Adventure Discovery elective in the Chatham curriculum to foster students' leadership, life skills, and teamwork abilities. Outside of Chatham employment, she created her own LLC in 2013, intending to introduce and make youth players interested in volleyball.
 
Tom Fischer (Football, 2008 – 2011)
A true four-year starter at quarterback for Montclair State, Tom Fischer guided the Red Hawks to a 32-7 record while under center. After qualifying for the ECAC South Central Bowl in 2008, the Fischer-led Red Hawks won NJAC titles in 2009 and 2010 while advancing to the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament each season.
 
The NJAC Player of the Year in 2010 and First Team All-NJAC selection, Fischer tossed 51 career touchdowns, including 22 in the 210 campaign. The quarterback was an effective 14-of-19 in his first NCAA Tournament game against Maine Maritime, and during the Second Round matchup against Mount Union, he tossed a pair of scores and added a 57-yard completion in the setback. In a rematch of the 1970 Knute Rockne Bowl, the Red Hawks knocked off Hampden-Sydney 16-14, with Fischer tossing an 81-yard touchdown pass to Dan Keegan to put MSU up 16-0 late in the third.
 
Fischer, who gained CoSIDA Academic All-District honors twice, finds himself second all-time in passing completions (525) and passing yards per game (176.7) and is third all-time in total touchdowns (55), passing attempts (951), passing yards (6,892), and passing touchdowns (51). His 22 passing touchdowns are the fourth-most in a single season, while his 164 completions during the 2009 and 2010 seasons are seventh. The Livingston, NJ native is one of seven quarterbacks to throw for 2,000 yards in a season and just the third to do it multiple times. All four of his seasons rank him in the top-15 for completion percentage, including the sixth-best mark of 57.1% in 2011.
 
Since graduating, Fischer has moved into education as a Teacher of Social Studies and History at Butler High School in New Jersey. Furthermore, Fischer also currently coaches football and boys' basketball at Butler. Now, Fischer resides in Allamuchy, NJ, with his wife of 10 years, Krystina, and their two daughters, Madeline and Ellie.
 
Heather Gearity (Track & Field, 2010 – 2014)
Heather Gearity shined during her four seasons on the track for the Red Hawks, winning a pair of NCAA Outdoor Championships and adding three additional All-American accolades in her outdoor career. After finishing as the runner-up in 2011, Gearity won the 400-meter hurdles the following season as she clocked in at 1:00.27. The mark was nine-hundredths of a second faster than second place, and she became the fourth Montclair State female to win a national championship and the first since Monique Riddick captured the shot put in 2009. Gearity claimed the first title on the track since Tierra Hicks won the same event in 2003, and she is the ninth overall outdoor champion (men and women) in Montclair State history. She repeated the feat in 2013, posting the fastest qualifying time in the preliminary rounds with a mark of 1:00.3 before becoming the first Montclair State women's track and field athlete to win back-to-back outdoor national titles as she posted a mark of 59.31.
 
A three-time CoSIDA Academic and four-time USTFCCCA All-American, Gearity was a 23-time All-NJAC performer, as she collected 11 First Team honors, eight Second Team laurels, and four Honorable Mention selections. The Rutherford, NJ native is a part of six school records (Indoor – 4x400 and 4x200 meter relay, Outdoor – 4x100, 4x200, 4x400, and standard medley relay.) Gearity collected three NJAC Outstanding Female Track Athlete of the Year accolades during Indoor while adding one during the Outdoor campaign. 
 
The 2011 NJAC Outdoor Track & Field Rookie of the Year closed out her career by picking up All-American honors in the 400-hurdles as she finished fourth during the 2014 season. Gearity also earned All-American laurels in the 1,600-meter relay as her, Hannah DeMatteo, Morgan Byrne, and Nicosia Henry turned in a school-record time of 3:47.71. Heather is a two-time stadium record holder, breaking the Skallerup Track at Swarthmore College (1:00.84) and the Roger Harring Stadium at the University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse (59.31) in the 400-hurdles. 

Heather still resides in Rutherford, NJ, where she lives with her husband, Tim Harris, whom she married in December 2021. Heather received her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from Hunter College in 2019. She has been working as an outpatient physical therapist at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, NJ for four years. She became a Certified Lymphedema Therapist in 2022 and has been working toward developing a defined oncology rehabilitation program for patients who are undergoing treatment or have a history of cancer. She and her husband are hoping to start a family in the near future, and Heather hopes to one day raise money for cancer research to run the NYC marathon. 
 
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