Embedded Files
1979 was the only time Old Tappan Girls or Boys Cross Country has ever won a NJSIAA Group Title and the only time Old Tappan Girls Cross Country has ever made it to the NJSIAA Meet of Champions at Holmdel Park as a team. The top runner from this team, Debbie Meberg ('80), continues to hold the Old Tappan Holmdel Park individual school record, and the Top 5 team average for Old Tappan at Holmdel in this year remains, by far, the fastest team time run at that course in school history.
"…Old Tappan's sensational team turned the Statewide title race into a northern Bergen cakewalk by posting victories yesterday at Holmdel County Park…Debbie Meberg, Coleen Dunn, and Megan Murtaugh place in the top 10, with Meberg finishing third for second consecutive year. But it was Old Tappan's back four runners that impressed the spectators..."
"'…Your girls ran the race of their lives today,' said a North Hunterdon fan to Coach Bruce Hyde. The Knights had beaten the...school 54-88."
"...But Hyde accurately replied, 'They've been doing it all year.'"
-Paul Schwartz, the XC Correspondent to the Sunday Record, November 11, 1979
Courtesy of Sue-Ellen Ubl '83
Front Row (L to R): Eugenia Koykas, Linda Rahal, Suzy Libonati, Sue-Ellen McSweeney
Back Row (L to R): Karen Mujica, Mary Kate Connelly, Coleen Dunn, Coach Bruce Hyde, Megan Murtaugh, Joanne Donnelly, Debbie Meberg, Andrea Carpentieri
Top 7 Runners
Debbie Meberg (Sr.): 1st Team All-League, 1st Team All-County, 2nd Team All-State
5K SEASON BEST-18:43 at Northern Valley Demarest to place 2nd at League Meet
2.85 MILE SEASON BEST-17:44 at Garret Mountain to place 4th in the County Group Meet
Coleen Dunn (Sr.): 1st Team All-League, 1st Team All-County
Megan Murtaugh (Sr.): 1st Team All-League, 1st Team All-County
Sue-Ellen McSweeney (Fr.): 1st Team All-League, 2nd Team All-County
Linda Rahal (So.): 1st Team All-League, Honorable Mention All-County
Eugenia Koykas (Fr.): 2nd Team All-League, Honorable Mention All-County
Suzy Libonati (So.): 2nd Team All-League, Honorable Mention All-County
Courtesy of Megan Murtaugh Dippolito '80
N.B.I.L. League Championship Start
Leagues: Fastest ever OTXC team average
Group 3 State Meet at Holmdel Results (20:14.6; remains team avg. school record)
Meberg-3rd-19:51
Dunn-5th-19:54
Murtaugh-10th-20:06
McSweeney-14th-20:25
Rahal-29th-20:57
Koykas-30th-21:16
Libonati-43rd-21:30
MOC at Holmdel Results (20:22.2)
Meberg-11th-19:54
Murtaugh-21st-20:13
McSweeney-22nd-20:14
Dunn-28th-20:33
Koykas-43rd-20:57
Rahal-47th-21:00
Libonati
Courtesy of Debbie Meberg '80
Team after Leagues
N.B.I.L. League Championship Start
All 7 runners in the Top 21 at the Bergen County Meet of Champions.
"Old Tappan needed no such boost. The Golden Knights won by such a large margin that even if their top two finishers Meberg (fourth) and Megan Murtaugh (fifth) had not run, they still would have beaten Ridgewood"
-The Record, October 31, 1979
Preseason North Jersey Ranking: 2nd
...
Final Ranking in North Bergen Interscholastic League: 1st
Final Bergen County Ranking in the Bergen Record: 1st
Final North Jersey Ranking: 1st
Final State Poll Ranking: 2nd
"Old Tappan continues to impress with the most balanced five-girl effort."
Courtesy of Megan Murtaugh Dippolito '80
Into the Woods at Garret Mountain
Courtesy of Megan Murtaugh Dippolito '80
Debbie Meberg ('80) at Leagues
"In the girls' meet, Old Tappan scored an astounding 21 [points] with Pascack Valley, the closest challenger, a distant second at 58….The girls at Old Tappan are used to domination, having shut out eight of 10 teams in dual meets this year."
-The News, November 2, 1979
Megan Murtaugh '80 at Leagues
(The Demarest 5K course finished on the then-cinder track)
Courtesy of Sue-Ellen Ubl '83
Linda Rahal '82 finishing a race
Courtesy of Debbie Meberg '80
Murtaugh and Meberg with Andrea Carpentieri stretching on the right
Courtesy of Sue-Ellen Ubl '83
Coach of the Year: Bruce Hyde
NVOT Athletics Hall of Fame Member
"When Bruce Hyde is asked whether he'd prefer coaching one rather than two cross-country teams, he answers directly. 'I'd rather do them both, as opposed to giving one of them up,' he says …'I don't feel coaching both is so difficult because the girls do primarily the same things the boys do in practice,' says Hyde, chosen by his fellow coaches as the Bergen County Girls Cross Country Coach of the Year for the second consecutive year. While the boys and girls go through identical workouts, so does the coach. 'I run with them every day. I sweat with them and work with them," says the former Demarest runner who for three years was an All-East selection while at Bucknell."
Dual Meet Record: 10-0
Perfect Scores (15 Points) at 8/10 Dual Meets
Preseason Predictions from the Bergen Record
Courtesy of Megan Murtaugh Dippolito '80
Start of the PV Dual
Courtesy of Megan Murtaugh Dippolito '80
Finish at the NBIL Championship @ Demarest
1st at Passaic County Coaches Invitational with 51 Points
4th at the Manhattan Eastern States Championships with 142 Points
1st at the N.B.I.L. League Meet with 21 Points
1st at the Bergen County Group III-IV Meet with 37 Points
1st at the Bergen County Meet of Champions with 32 Points
1st at NJSIAA North 1 Group 3 State Sectionals with 29 Points
1st at NJSIAA Group 3 State Championships with 54 Points
2nd at the NJSIAA Meet of Champions to Hunterdon Central with 63 Points
"Old Tappan should run right over everyone in Group 3."
-The Record, November 1, 1979
Courtesy of Sue-Ellen Ubl '83
The Varsity Team after Winning the State Group Championship at Holmdel
Megan Murtaugh's card from SMOC
Courtesy of Megan Murtaugh Dippolito '80
The Varsity Team (and top boys runner John Nelson, who competed at this meet individually) after the State Meet of Champions at Holmdel
"Old Tappan cross country coach Bruce Hyde wishes the cross-country season was one week longer. If it was, the Golden Knights might be the new NJSIAA girls champions"
-The Record, November 18, 1979
The Record's 1979 All-County Announcement
Courtesy of Megan Murtaugh Dippolito '80
"The Meberg shadow obscured many other fine runners. She took third in the State Group 3 race, fourths in the Bergen 3-4 and [Bergen] Meet of Champions, and 11th in the State Meet of Champions"
"Murtaugh took 21st in the State Meet of Champions, fourth in the NBIL, and fifths in the State and County Groups and Bergen Meet of Champs."
"Dunn [came] alive in pressure assignments, finishing fourth and seventh, respectively, in the State and County groups; and sixth and 28th in the County and State Meets of Champions."
Courtesy of Megan Murtaugh Dippolito '80
Coach Hyde Presenting Groups Trophy to Vice Principal
Courtesy of Megan Murtaugh Dippolito '80
Team at the Varsity Dinner
1970's All-Decade Announcement
Google Sites
Report abuse