1981 GIRLS' CROSS COUNTRY TEAM TEAM YEAR OF INDUCTION: 2017 Coach Jerry Bleistein had plenty of reasons to be optimistic prior to the start of the 1981 cross country season. "When we started the season, we knew we had the three runners and we would win a lot of meets because of that," Bleistein said. "But to finish third in the state was quite an achievement." Steinert also won the Mercer County Meet for the fifth consecutive year and rolled to a 14-1 dual-meet mark, with the only setback to North Hunterdon, the top team in New Jersey. There were challenges for the Spartans, but "the great cooperation and good kids" in the program made the season very special. Led by sophomore sensation Johanna Koneski, who won the county meet in record-setting time, Steinert also received strong performances from Kim Hagemann and Nancy Beebe. Lifting the Spartans into the New Jersey cross-country echelon were Stacey Olynyk, Karen Galatro and Gia Shiarappa. "Stacey and Karen were so important to the team, they kind of flip-flopped (in the order they finished) and Gia came through very nicely when Nancy got hurt," Bleistein, who was named Coach of the Year in the Trenton newspapers, said. Beebe, a junior, went down with a compound fracture of the tibia in the Central Jersey Group IV meet. Steinert won the first state sectional girls' cross country championship in school history, placed second in the state group race and was third in the Meet of Champions. Koneski, who was inducted into the Steinert Athletic Hall of Fame as an individual athlete in 2007, was second in the CJ Meet, sixth in Group IV and 22nd in the state championships. Hagemann and Beebe were repeat selections to the All-Mercer team. "Johanna Koneski, that girl could run," said Doug Martin, who coached cross country and track and field at SHS, including the athlete who earned 12 varsity letters and set records in the 1-mile, 2-mile and cross-country course distances. "That team had a lot of great chemistry." Click Here to enlarge the team photo. RETURN TO THE HALL OF FAME MEMBERS PAGE