2002 Girls Track & Field Team

2002 Girls Track & Field Team

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Glen Rock High School’s Girls Track & Field teams won six consecutive Group, County Championships from 2000 through 2005 and four consecutive Group, State Championships from 2000 through 2003, earning Glen Rock being named North Jersey’s Girls Track & Field Program of the Decade. The 2002 Girls Track & Field Team was the most outstanding one of those four teams. 

“They all came to the track with courage and heart” – D.J. Nimphius

From 1993 to 1999, benefiting from an extremely talented group of athletes and from being coached by future Hall of Fame D.J. Nimphius, Glen Rock High School Girls Track & Field Teams enjoyed significant success, including winning six Bergen County Relay Championships, six Group, County Championships (or Co-Championships), four Group, Sectional Championships and three Group, State Championships. The 1995 team was particularly outstanding and has been inducted into the Glen Rock High School Hall of Fame.

In the following decade, Glen Rock High School girls track & field athletes continued their historic level of success. In the four seasons from 2000 through 2003, they won four consecutive Group, Bergen County Championships, four consecutive Group, Sectional Championships and four consecutive Group, State Championships. As a result, in 2010, The Record wrote that the school had fielded North Jersey’s Girls Track & Field Program of the Decade.

Led by future Hall of Fame inductees, senior Erin Henry and junior Kim Mineo, the 2002 Team was the most dominant of those four extremely successful teams. 

The 2002 team began its season with great optimism. The season began with the Group 1, Bergen County Relays. At that meet, Glen Rock won seven events: the 1600 meters, the 3200 meters, the 6400 meters, the sprint medley (with Amanda Peraino, Mary Moore, Ali Dykhouse and Kim Mineo running it in 4:21.5, breaking the previous meet record of 4:23.9 set by the 2001 Glen Rock team), the distance medley, the 3×400 intermediate hurdles, the high jump (tied) and the long jump. In addition, at the conclusion of the meet, having run winning anchor legs in the 1600 and in the record setting sprint medley and a 64.1 split in the intermediate hurdles, as well as being a member of the team’s first place tie in the high jump, Kim was named the Jacob Brown outstanding performer of the meet. Glen Rock finished with 114 points, a total that would have usually resulted in what would have been their ninth consecutive championship. However, they ended up a very close second to Hasbrouck Heights.

The team’s deep strength then produced an undefeated dual meet season and a B-PSL, Carpenter Championship with a dominating total of 184.5 points.

100 meters: #6 Marie Greene

400 meters: #1 Kim Mineo; #5 Christina Patoir

800 meters: #1 Erin Henry; #2 Danielle Patoir; #3 Amanda Peraino

1600 meters: #1 Danielle Patoir; #2 Mary Moore; #4 Kristen Stephens

3200 meters: #1 Erin Henry; #2 Liz Saydah; #3 Brenna O’Rourke

100 HH: #2 Molly Matanie; #5 Ali Dykhouse; #6 Meg Thielke

400 IH: #1 Kim Mineo; #3 Molly Matanie; #4 Christina Patoir

Long Jump: #2 Betsy Van Langen; #3 Molly Matanie; #4 Meg Thielke100 meters: #6 Marie Greene

400 meters: #1 Kim Mineo; #5 Christina Patoir

800 meters: #1 Erin Henry; #2 Danielle Patoir; #3 Amanda Peraino

1600 meters: #1 Danielle Patoir; #2 Mary Moore; #4 Kristen Stephens

3200 meters: #1 Erin Henry; #2 Liz Saydah; #3 Brenna O’Rourke

100 HH: #2 Molly Matanie; #5 Ali Dykhouse; #6 Meg Thielke

400 IH: #1 Kim Mineo; #3 Molly Matanie; #4 Christina Patoir

Long Jump: #2 Betsy Van Langen; #3 Molly Matanie; #4 Meg Thielke

hHigh Jump: #2(Tie) Betsy Van Langen; #6(Tie) Alexia Schwartz

Triple Jump: #2 Molly Matanie; #3 Meg Thielke; #4 Ali Dykhouse

Shot Put: #4 Karen Streicker; #5 Carmella Aliano

Discus: #2 Katherine Strelcheck; #3 Carmella Aliano; #5 Laura Murray

Javelin: #1 Annie Lent; #3 Kate Tryforos; #4 Cureen Mulkeen

1600 meters relay: #1 GRHS (Amanda, Erin, Ali and Kim)

At the following Group 1, Bergen County Championship, competing in what the papers called “almost intolerable conditions,” Glen Rock delivered a commanding performance (especially in the middle-distance and distance races), earning a total of 133 points and easily defeating rival Hasbrouck Heights (87 points). Kim won the 400 meters, Erin won the 800 meters (with Danielle in second), Danielle won the 1600 meters, and Erin won the 3200 meters (again, with Danielle in second). Kim also won the 400 meters intermediate hurdles in a meet record time of 1:03 (breaking Kate Hanley’s meet record of 1:04.3). And, as in the League Championship, Glen Rock’s depth delivered significant points in so many of the events. Finally, Glen Rock capped its championship with a victory in the 1600 meters relay.

At the Group 1, Sectional Championship, Glen Rock delivered an almost equally
dominant performance against an even larger group of competitors, earning a total of
127 points, over 30 points more than Hasbrouck Heights’ total of 94 points. Glen Rock athletes placed in 10 of the 14 events and were victorious in 5 of them. Kim won the 400 meters in a meet record time (58.1 vs prior record of 59.2 shared by Kim and another runner) and Glen Rock runners finished 1-2-3 in the 800 meters, the 1600 meters and the 3200 meters. Kim won the 800 in a meet record time of 2:13.9 breaking the old record of 2:19.1 (with Erin in second and Danielle in third), Erin won the 1600 (with Danielle in second and Mary Moore in third), and Erin won the 3200 (with Danielle in second and Liz Saydah in third). Kim also won the 400 meters intermediate hurdles (with Ali in second) in a meet record time of 1:03.2 (breaking Kate Hanley’s record of 1:04.3).

At the subsequent Bergen County Meet of Champions, Erin won the 800 meters (with Danielle finishing fourth) and Kim won the 400 meters intermediate hurdles in a time of 1:01.98.

It was then on to the Group 1, State Championship where the girls decisively earned a
third consecutive Group State Championship. Led by victories in 5 of the events, Glen Rock’s athletes earned a total of 69 points – almost triple the total of its nearest competitor (Penns Grove with 26).

400 meters: #1 Kim Mineo (59.16)
800 meters: #1 Kim Mineo (2:17.58); #4 Erin Henry
1600 meters: #1 Erin Henry (5:15.12); #5 Danielle Patoir
3200 meters: #1 Erin Henry (11:35.67); #2 Danielle Patoir; #4 Liz Saydah
400 meters IH: #1 Kim Mineo (1:05.23); #6 Ali Dykhouse

With her victories in the 1600 and 3200, Erin became the first Bergen County athlete to win the same Group, State Championship race three years in a row. (Kim would join her after the 2003 season with her third victory in the 800 meters.)

At the subsequent State Meet of Champions, Kim won the 800 meters in 2:12.21 and Erin finished fifth in the 1600 meters in 5:08.96.

After the State Championship, members of the team competed in the United States National Championship. Erin, Liz, Kim and Danielle ran the 4xmile relay in 21:35, a time that is the equivalent in the 4×1600 meters of 21:28.07 and is still the school record for that event and still one of the fastest times in Bergen County history.

At the end of the season, The Record selected Glen Rock’s Girls Track & Field Team as the North Jersey Team of the Year. The Newark Star-Ledger selected the team as Bergen County’s Team of the Year, D.J. Nimphius as Bergen County’s Coach of the Year and Kim as Bergen County’s Performer of the Year.

Erin Henry and other leaders of the 2002 track & field team graduated after that season. Nonetheless, led by returning Kim Mineo, Danielle Patoir and many others, the 2003 track & field team repeated as Group 1, Bergen County Champions, Group 1, Sectional Champions and Group 1, State Champions. At that State Championship meet, Kim finished second in the 400 meters, repeated as champion in the 800 meters (and then won the State Meet of Champions in that event; making her the first North Jersey athlete (male or female) to win three consecutive SMOC events), and repeated as champion in the 400 meters Intermediate Hurdles. Danielle finished second in the 1,600 meters and third in the 3,200 meters and other teammates earned numerous other medals. Glen Rock won that championship by a 62-49 margin over Paulsboro.

The 2004 Team repeated as Bergen County Champions (in Group 2). After that season, D.J. Nimphius left Glen Rock to become the Head Coach of football and boys track & field at another high school. He left having compiled a total of eleven Group, County Championships, eight Group, Sectional Championships and seven Group, State Championships in his twelve years as the team’s Head Coach.

Erin Henry and Kim Mineo still hold the school records for all of the middle-distance and distance races: Kim in the 400 meters (58.140 and the 800 meters (2:12.12), as well as the 400 intermediate hurdles (61.98); Erin in the 1600 (5:08.64) meters and the 3200 meters (11:02.93).

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Head Coach D.J. Nimphius

Assistants Coaches: Paul Cusack – Alan Deaett – Paul white