Norwin High School senior Julia Walko remembers the time her track coach, Brian Fleckenstein, penciled in her sister to run in a relay in a track meet.
“Coach Fleckenstein entered Jenna by mistake,” said Julia Walko.
It’s not that Julia was upset at being bumped by her sister, the problem is Jenna doesn’t run the relay and is not even on the track team.
Such is the life sometimes for a twin.
People confuse you with your twin or call you by your twin’s name if you are of the same gender, as Abigail “Abbe” Bowser said has happened to her when she is called by the name of her sister, Sophia.
“It happens so much, that I respond to Matthew,” said Mason Guerzo, 17, of being called by his twin’s name.
At Norwin this year, that might have happened more than usual for the Class of 2024 because it has 11 sets of twins. That means those at the May 24 commencement ceremonies will be hearing the same surname twice nearly a dozen times as the twins take their diplomas in a rite of passage as they move onto the next phase of their life.
“It’s a lot more than usual,” said Michael Choby, Norwin High School principal.
The 22 twins of the Norwin’s Class of 2024 represent more than 5% of the senior class of 393 students. None of them are identical twins, although eight are of the same gender.
While rare, it’s not unheard of for there to be multiple sets of twins in a graduating class.
Eleven sets of twins also graduated from a Bergen County, N.J. high school in 2023. That class wasn’t the record for the Northern Highlands High School, which graduated 16 sets of twins in 2021. The school was featured in a CNN report last year and had 12 more sets of twins in the class of 2025.
Norwin twins Abigail and Sophie Bowser plan to get tattoos of their Zodiac sign — Leo for being born in July — to memorialize their twinness.
With college in the fall, there will be a separation for some for the first time in their lives.
The Arendas girls said they will go to different colleges, but have yet to decide.
While there are some disadvantages to being a twin, Alexis Klamut offered a great reason for having a twin.
“It’s your built-in bestie,” Alexis said.
Norwin’s twins were featured in a segment produced by TribLive news partner WTAE that appeared on Good Morning America.
