11 sets of twins prepare to graduate from New Jersey high school

ALLENDALE, New Jersey -- Twins make up about 3% of the U.S. population, but for one high school graduating class in New Jersey, the rate of seeing double is more than doubled!

Our sister station WABC-TV got to meet eight of the 11 sets of fraternal twins that all started together at Northern Highlands Regional High School in Allendale, Bergen County, and are now ready to graduate: Justin and Roman, Dan and Nico, John and Juliana, Ryan and Robert, Tommy and Isabelle, Andre and Gabe, Kyle and Anthony, and Tommy and Sarah.

"My teacher said, 'There are a lot of twins in (my grade); why don't we do a spreadsheet on them?' So I had to nag everybody," Juliana Lavinio said.

The pairs of twins make up about 6.5% of their graduating class of 340 students.

"I think it's neat. I think that's the best way to put it. 'Oh cool, fun fact,'" Kyle Gentile said.

"We all came from different towns so we didn't realize when we were younger. There were three sets in Allendale and a lot more in other towns," Sarah Cornacchia said.

Each set has gone to school together all their lives. Most of them are going in different directions for college, but are they sad about it?

"Absolutely not," Dan Pantello said.

"He's going to Fairfield, I'm going to Miami," his twin brother Nico Pantello said.

"We shared a room for a long time. It was horrible," Anthony Gentile said of his twin brother Kyle.

"I think we are very different people, even though we're still best friends. We'll be OK," Tommy Padilla said of his twin sister Isabelle. "We're only four hours away from each other.

"So we can take a train," Isabelle said.

Justin and Roman Dario are the only ones headed off together.

"The University of Florida is big enough to where we can have our own separate lives," Roman said.

"But now that we have different roommates, we're going to branch out and meet other people," Justin said.

Andre and Gabe Johnson said they will miss each other's helping hand.

"Unfortunately, I won't have him to help me with homework or any other tasks that usually goes to him, but it's all good," Andre said.

Ryan and Robert Christensen said they are going to different schools but will have the same major.

"We're going to be in the pre-dental track, so we'll see where that takes us; hopefully, we'll run a practice one day together," Robert said.

Principal Joe Occhino says they are all great kids.

"They're outstanding students. They're confident, they help each other, highly academic," Occhino said.

But the class missed the twins graduating together record at Northern Highlands - by five! The class of 2021 had 16 sets of twins.

"Pretty amazing actually," Occhino said.

The class will graduate on Thursday evening.