Duo looking to ‘defend’ title at Mercer XC
By: Bob Nuse
More than any other team at West Windsor-Plainsboro High North, the boys’ cross country team had every reason to come into the season feeling optimistic.
Like the rest of the school, the team is a first-year program without any seniors on the roster. But unlike the other teams at the school, this one returned two of the top performers in Mercer County in Brian Scott and Mark Collins. Last year, Scott and Collins were important parts of a West Windsor-Plainsboro High team that finished the season undefeated in dual meets and captured the Mercer County championship.
With the split of WW-P into two schools this year, Collins and Scott will not have a chance to defend that championship at today’s Mercer County meet, which begins at 3 p.m. at Veterans Park in Hamilton. But that doesn’t mean they won’t be keeping a close eye on what might have been once all the results are in.
"It’s disappointing that we won’t have that chance," said Scott, who along with Collins has helped lead the Northern Knights to a 7-6 record in dual meets this fall. "Even though we lost some very good seniors from that team last year, I think if we had come back as one team we might have had a chance. It will be interesting after counties to look and see where we would have been if we were still one team.
"We still know everyone on (South) real well and we went to camp together over the summer. I’m sure we’ll stretch together at the meet."
The presence of Collins and Scott has made North a legitimate team right from the start of the season. Both runners were key members of last year’s county championship team, so they know what it takes to be successful. They also have helped bring along the less experienced members of the team over the course of the season.
"It’s definitely good on any team, having competition," North coach Bill Mealy said. "The closer you are, the more you push each other. They’ve helped each other out a lot. Tom Lodato is coming in next. Those three, and then the next three, have been coming in close to each other. They’re all close enough that they’re pushing each other and chasing each other down."
For a team without of any seniors, the Knights have done more than anyone could have expected of them this fall.
"I think we’ve done real well for a first-year team and Mr. Mealy has done a great job of coaching us," Collins said. "I don’t know if I’m doing as well as I had hoped to, but as a team we’re doing very well. The training has been different this year. We don’t have the older guys that we had last year that were the leaders during training. We would follow them and do what they did. This year we don’t have that."
But they do have talent, which has been a major factor in posting the lone winning record at North this fall. Now the Knights will look to see where they stand among the other teams in Mercer County.
"We’ve been looking forward to the meet and it should be interesting," Scott said. "We’ve done better than a lot of people expected. Coming out of South I don’t think we were expected to do much. We had a lot of new guys that didn’t have a lot of experience. But they’ve done pretty well. In cross country, even if you have two strong runners, you can’t do much without the three, four and five guys."
"I don’t know about winning it, but I think our team could get into the top five," Collins added. "Individually, I would like to be up there. There are usually only one or two guys ahead of us in each meet and most of them have been real close. So I think Brian and I have a pretty good chance to do well. Some of the younger guys on our team didn’t run varsity last year, but they’ve been doing well. They just don’t have the county meet experience."
"The last couple of times out their times have been improving," Mealy said of his team. "It’s really tough to say how we’ll be with the way we’ve been running. We’ve seen most of the teams a couple of times during the season. We only saw Hightstown and Hopewell once on the course, and they’re the top teams. Mark and Brian are doing well and looking forward to the counties."
As are all the Knights, who in some small way can go into the meet feeling like they’re defending a championship.