The victorious RFH lady dawgs celebrate their third consecutive NJSIAA Group II Championship with coaches Catherine Satzke (front row, far left), Bob Keough (back row, left) and Tim McLoone (back row, right).

Press release from Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School

The Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School girls indoor track and field team captured its third consecutive NJSIAA Central Group II Sectional Championship on Friday, January 31 at the The Bennett Center in Toms River, New Jersey.

As a result of their performances, ten members of RFH girls track and field and two members of RFH boys track and field advanced to the NJSIAA State Group Championship.

RFH Head Coach Tim McLoone attributes this season’s success to his team’s extraordinary depth as well as the upperclassmen’s unselfish dedication to mentoring the younger runners.

“Hardworking and competitive girls like this make coaching easy,” said McLoone. “They are mature and determined in their approach to both training and racing, and this is the result.”

RFH girls indoor track and field teammates relaxing during the NJSIAA Groups 1 and 2 meet are, from left to right, junior Fini Satzke, senior Jacqueline Gottuso, senior Molli Cohen, junior Hannah Anderson, and senior Ceili Moser.

Highlights of the meet for RFH included standout performances in the 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 55-meter hurdles, and the 4 X 400 relay. RFH sophomore Morgan Steinhacker finished second in both the 400 and 800 events, with times of 1:00.32 and 2:24.42. Emily Boak, also a sophomore, claimed the third-place slot in the 55-meter hurdles with 9.04.

RFH senior Rachel Mullan followed Steinhacker in the 400 with a third-place time of 1:01.02, and senior Courtney Howley claimed the number three spot in the 800 with 2:24.42. In the 1600 event, RFH gained 18 points with standout performances by senior Jacqueline Gottuso (5:11.73) followed by Howley (5:14.79) and senior Megan Hellman (5:16.02).

In the high jump event, junior Anna Finn took sixth place with a height of 4’8″ and advanced to the State Finals.

The first-place finish for RFH was all-but-clinched when Gottuso (11:23.79), junior Hannah Anderson (11:31.15), and Hellman (11:31.17) claimed the top three spots in the 3200. This gave the Bulldogs 24 and points pushed them to a healthy lead with just one event left in the meet. In that final event, the 4 X 400 relay, the RFH girls were once again victorious with a time of 4:07.96 courtesy of Howley, Mullan, Steinhacker, and junior Janie DeVito.

RFH girls advancing to the State Finals are Anderson, Boak, DeVito, Finn, Gottuso, Hellman, Howley, Mullan, and Steinhacker along with junior Fini Satzke, who advanced in the 800 meter race with a sixth place finish.

Also advancing to the state finals from the boys indoor track and field team are seniors Jason Bryan and Jacob Rue. Bryan broke the meet record with a personal throw of 60-0 in the shot put, while Rue set an RFH school record with 11’6″ in the pole vault.