The 1st Decade of Mercer Girl's Track--1970 to1980
- mercertrackhall
- 4 days ago
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Updated: 11 hours ago
The NJSIAA started to sponsor girls track championships in 1971. That year and the following year there were only sectional meets. NJ was divided into a North Sectional and a South Sectional. In both 1971 & ’72 there was no girls’ county meet yet, no state meets, and no Meet of Champs.
The state track meets for girls started in 1973 with two “Divisions” (A & B) from 1973 to 1975. The state meets for girls went to Groups 1, 2, 3, and 4 by 1976.
The NJ Meet of Champs T&F outdoor event for girls started in spring of 1974, and the first winter Girls Meet of Champs started in 1979.
The 1st full Mercer County Girls Track Championship was held in spring of 1975.
There was no full schedule indoor girls county meet in the 70s. However for 3 years in 1974, ‘75 & ‘76--during the indoor season at the boys’ county meet-- there were 2 girls individual county races held. The two races were the 60 Yard Dash & 880 (Half Mile). There were no indoor girls’ team scores in those years.
1971
The first ever females from Mercer County high schools to win NJSIAA championships occurred in the inaugural year of 1971 at the sectional meet. In that meet 4 girls from Princeton High won titles at the North Sectional Championship of ‘71. The winners for Princeton were: Lori Bowman who won the 50 Yard Dash, her sister Andrea Bowman who won Broad Jump, Karen Herzog who won the 120 Hurdles, and Betty Woodbridge who won the Mile. Princeton’s girls team finished 3rd.
1972
In 1972 at the sectional meet Betty’s younger sister Kathy Woodbridge of Princeton HS won the first of her 2 consecutive sectional titles in the 880 yards at the North Sectional. 1973
In 1973 Kathy Woodbridge won her 2nd consecutive sectional title in the 800 and her Princeton HS teammate Diane Westover won the sectional in the Mile Run. By 1973 PHS had 6 girls who between them won 7 sectional titles in just the first 3 years of NJSIAA track.
Also in 1973 Hilary Noden of Hopewell Valley won her first NJSIAA track title with a win in the sectional mile in Division B. Along with Westover from Princeton winning the other sectional division, Mercer had female Mile Champions for both public school sectionals that year.
At the Division B state meet in 1973 Hilary Noden won the Mile Run to become Mercer’s first girls state champion in track.
1974
In the winter of 1974 Kathy Woodbridge of PHS won the indoor 880 county title to become the first half mile county champ ever, and then she followed that up in the ‘74 outdoor season with a win at the Division-A State Championship for 880.
Also outdoors in ’74, Hilary Noden of HV won her 2nd straight state title in the 1 Mile Run in Division B, to go along with her 2nd straight sectional title she won the week before. Noden next won the Mile Run at the inaugural NJ Girls Meet of Champs, becoming the first Mercer female to win a Track & Field All-Group Title.
1975
In the spring 1975, Hopewell Valley won the inaugural Outdoor Mercer County Girls Team Championship in T&F.
During the 1975 track season Hilary Noden dominated. She became the Indoor Mercer County 880 champ, the first ever outdoor Mercer County champ in the Mile & Javelin, she won her 3rd straight sectional & state titles in the Mile, and her 2nd straight Meet of Champs in the Mile.
1976
In 1976 West Windsor Girls became Outdoor Mercer County T&F team champions, and the Hightstown Girls won the Group II State Sectional team title.
At the 1976 state meet Hightstown’s Margaret McCormick anchored the Rams Mile Relay Team to a win in the Group II Championships. The same relay quartet won the sectional mile relay the meet before. With those two wins, Hightstown was the first ever Mercer County school to win girls NJSIAA relay titles. The relay team members were: Ellen Bradley, Mary Damutz, Lynn Roach, and McCormick).
Hightstown Girls also won the Sectional Group II team title becoming the first Mercer team to win a sectional championship. Besides the mile relay gold, they were led by McCormick’s win in the 880 and Mary Damutz taking the 440 title
At the Meet of Champs in 1976, Hopewell’s Noden won the 2 Mile Run. Through the entire year of ’76 she again dominated NJ girls’ track & field. In addition to the All-Group win, Noden won her 2nd straight county javelin title, as well as winning gold medals in the 2 Mile Run at the county, sectional and state championships.
1977
1977 was a big year for Mercer Girls on the statewide level. In the outdoor season 4 Individuals won state championships.
o Margaret McCormick of Hightstown won the Group II State Championship in the 880.
o Vee Hearns of Ewing won the Long Jump state title for Group IV.
o Gina Nelson of Trenton Central won the Group IV state title for the 100 Yards, and her Trenton teammate Dorothea Smith was also State Group IV champ, winning the 220.
o Also in the spring of 1977 Ewing’s team squeaked by Hopewell to win an exciting Mercer County Championship by 1 point.
1978
In 1978 Steinert, led by distance runner Bobbi Lynch and sprinter/jumper Luanne Christiano, took home the team title at the spring Mercer County Meet.
On the state level, Kim Hatchett of Lawrence won the Group II High Jump.
1979
In the fall of 1979 Beverly Rockhill of Hamilton West won the Group 4 State Championship in Cross-country.
Bev Rockhill
In the indoor Meet of Champs in 1979 Mary Damutz of Hightstown took 1st, winning the 880.
Outdoors of 1979 was Lawrence High School’s year. Despite losing the county track meet to Trenton, their girls’ team won both the sectional and state team titles in Group II. They were led by Lori Dowers who was Group II State and Sectional Champion at both 100 and 220 Yards, and
Kim Hatchett’s twin sister Karen was also a double winner at the sectional and group state championships--taking the 120H & HJ at both meets.
1970’s Additional Highlights
The trailblazing Princeton HS girls track program of the early 1970s was coached by Lamont Fletcher (Center of top row in photo below)
After graduating from PHS, 1971 NJ sectional winner Lori Bowman attended Indiana University where she graduated with a law degree and is the founder of the current Bowman Firm law group.
Diane Westover, the 1973 Sectional Mile Champion for PHS, is the daughter of Robert Westover who was 1943 NJ State Champion in the 440 Yards for Trenton Central. Her dad is a historical inductee in the Mercer Track Hall of Fame. After PHS, Diane and fellow teammate Karen Herzog—the sectional hurdles champ in ’71-- attended Colorado State University. They both competed in track for the CSU Rams and they both graduated in 1977.
NJ 880 State Champion Kathy Woodbridge graduated from PHS in 1975 and attended The University of Colorado at Boulder. At Colorado she was a multiple year letter winner, a conference champion in the 3 mile run, and a member of the Buffaloes Cross Country Team which finished 4th at the 1978 AIAW National Cross Country Championships. She is a member of the PHS Athletic Hall of Fame
Hopewell’s Hillary Noden won 3 consecutive Meet of Champions titles in
Cross-Country from 1972 to 1974.
On the track she won 5 county titles (1 indoors, 4 outdoors), 4 sectional titles outdoors, 4 outdoor state titles, and 3 outdoor Meet of Champs titles. All together she won a total of 19 majors. She competed for Penn State after high school graduation.
New Jersey’s 1977 880 State Champ Margaret McCormick of Hightstown attended Bowdoin College where she competed in track. She was inducted into the Hightstown High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001.
State Group II sprint champion Lori Dowers went on to attend college at Delaware State University after graduating from Lawrence HS in ‘79. She earned All-American status with a third place in the 60m Dash at the AIAW Indoor Women’s College National Championships in 1980.
From 1978 to 1980 Lawrence’s Karen Hatchett won 12 major high school track titles. She won 2 county titles in HJ & 1 county title in the hurdles, 2 sectional HJ titles & 2 sectional hurdles titles, 2 Group II state titles in HJ & 2 Group II titles in hurdles, and 1 Meet of Champions title in the High Jump in ’80. She went on to be a 2-time All-American at University of Virginia. She won gold for VA at the 1982 AIAW National Indoor T&F Championships as a member of Virginia’s DMR, and a silver on the 4x4 relay at the same meet.
Kim Hatchett also attended University of Virginia where she was ACC Champion in the 100 and 400 Hurdles in 1983. A year earlier Kim earned indoor All-American status as she teamed up with her sister on the Cavilers aforementioned 4x4 relay.
Distance runner Bobbi Lynch Heydacker who starred for Steinert during their 1978 County Championship in spring track serves as a board member for the Mercer Track & Field Hall of Fame.
