By: Justin Feil
John Woodside doesn’t want to put too much pressure on his young Princeton High School boys’ cross country team, but he knows it will be very good, if not this season, then next.
The first-year head coach has just one senior on his squad, which has been led by a sophomore and a freshman, neither of which is even 15-years-old yet, in its first three meets. What’s more is that the Little Tigers are 5-1 after coming off a 2-11 season.
"What I am pleased with is we have a strong group all the way back to our No. 6 and maybe 7," Woodside said. "And seven and eight are coming on strong. We’re really pleased with how we’ve started the season. Now we’re coming into the big meets, but we do have a plan."
Prior to Tuesday’s tri-meet with West Windsor-Plainsboro High South and Nottingham, the Tigers were confident.
"We know if we go in with a good attitude and if we run our best times, we can beat them," said Kyle Steinnagel, who was PHS’ top finisher last Tuesday just behind Allentown’s first three runners. "I feel like I can run a better race and stick with them."
The confidence paid off, as Princeton won both races.
Steinnagel is one reason for such optimism at Princeton. Though only a sophomore, he’s been the Little Tigers’ top finisher in their meets this season. Last season, he appeared ready to make such a move as a freshman before injuries robbed him of four crucial weeks of training.
"I ran the first two cross country meets last season and then had a knee injury," he explained. "I was able to come back and run 18:33 at Mercer Counties, but I couldn’t do much of anything while I was hurt. That was frustrating. And then I hurt my ankle at Junior Olympic Nationals and I missed all the winter season. I was No. 1 sometimes last year and other times it was Matt Wells."
This year, the Little Tigers are working to make sure the team is No. 1. PHS has handled Nottingham and Ewing while losing to early favorite Notre Dame. Next week, they’ll face Hopewell Valley, another significant Colonial Valley Conference Valley Division test like Allentown.
"We’re already better than we were last year," Steinnagel said. "I can see that we’ll be really good next year. We could be a dominant team. As a team, we’d like to win the Valley this year, but it’s tough with Allentown and Hopewell Valley."
It helps that although Steinnagel and current No. 2 Little Tiger runner Carlos Espichan are young, they do have big-race experience already. Both have been to the JO Nationals and were groomed by Princeton Charter School middle school head coach Christian Lynch. And they have an inner drive uncommon among high school runners. Steinnagel, for example, has already set a goal this season of breaking 17 minutes for the 3.1 mile course at Veterans’ Park.
"They’ve had good experience with nationals," Woodside said. "Kyle is tremendously ambitious. He wants to be really, really good. He’s willing to do whatever it takes. We have to be careful not to overdo it though."
It’s one of Woodside’s worries with such a young team, which includes Cranbury’s Chad Zebhur. He doesn’t want them to be discouraged if they don’t top teams that are older and more experienced, and he doesn’t want them to be in too much of a hurry to get there if it means risking an injury.
"One thing you do is try not to overdo their training," said Woodside, who worked with many of them for spring track last season. "I’m very aware of watching them and if you start to see injuries popping up, you have to back down.
"As far as racing goes, you have to tell them to believe in themselves. They have to believe in themselves. I try to sell them that not only are they going to be good this year, but next year, and that’s helpful."
For the sophomores and juniors like Steinnagel, it’s more helpful just to have had a year of experience. That helps raise confidence among the Little Tiger runners.
"I’m more experienced," Steinnagel said. "Spring track helped a lot. We knew we’d be a better team this year. We knew with the kids we had, it would be a good year. We sort of sensed it in spring track. We were 5-3 and our distance team did well.
"This year, we got ready earlier," he added. "We started training six weeks before the season started." Tigers have a group of good runners that can train together. No one is head and shoulders above everyone else, and it helps the team push itself. It’s helped make Steinnagel stronger already this season and bound to for years to come.
"I’m so excited about how he’s running and how he’ll be in the future because of that," Woodside said. "He has other kids to run with. That really helps. Kyle’s racing really well and he’s only a sophomore, you have to remember that."
CVC teams are taking note. Don’t expect the Little Tigers to take anyone by surprise in the coming years.

