Patti Mileski

Patti Mileski, a 1983 graduate, is one of the top-flight cross-country and track athletes in the history of Ridgewood High School. Patti joined the Ridgewood cross-country program her sophomore year when she arrived at the high school.

For the next three seasons, the Maroons had an unprecedented run of three triple crowns, a Group 4 State Championship and a second in the State Meet of Champions (SMOC). With her sister, Mary Ellen, as a training partner, she achieved First Team All-County three times and First Team All-State twice and was a First-Team All-American selection her senior year.

Patti was equally successful in track and field, setting school and Bergen County records in the one-mile and two-mile runs. Teaming with Mary Ellen on the relays, Patti had a fabulous series of accomplishments: school record in the javelin relay, a national record in the indoors distance medley, finalist in the Penn Relays 4 x 800, Bergen County records in the sprint medley, 4 x 800, distance medley and 4 x 1-mile relays. Her performance in the 4 x 1-mile relay still stands as a Bergen County record and was the national record when run in 1983 and stood as the best mark ever for 17 years.

Patti was third in the SMOC in the 3200-meter run as a senior and competed and placed in the inaugural National Prep Championship in Portland, Oregon. Patti attended Texas A& M for one year with full track scholarship. She then transferred to the University of Notre Dame where they only offered club track and field because there was no intercollegiate program for women at the time. Today, Patti has an active group of athletic children in New Hampshire. Winter time finds her teaching adaptive skiing at the local ski hills.