Princeton Packet Athlete of the Week

Miller finishes as double winner

By: Justin Feil
   Lisa Miller is not a very fast starter, but the West Windsor-Plainsboro High South runner certainly is a good finisher. She proved that much again at the Mercer County Championships on Sunday at Widener University.
   Miller’s day started with a bang. For the past two seasons, she’s been chasing Hopewell Valley’s Kate Willever, a solid 800 and mile runner, who she’d never beaten.
   "She lost to Willever by three seconds at the batch meet," said WW-PS coach Todd Smith. "She was getting closer. At the batch meet, she tried to take it with two laps to go and Willever caught her."
   Sunday, Miller used the last possible break to take the mile in a photo finish. The Pirate sophomore edged Willever by one hundredth of a second in 5:22.94.
   "This time," Smith said, "she just tried to stay up with her and they started sprinting what looked like the last two laps, but on that (shorter) track, it’s not that long. It was neck and neck and Willever couldn’t stay with her. It’s a good sign that Lisa’s speed is getting better."
   Miller’s speed was easily enough in the two-mile run to capture first. Her 11:41.79 clocking was more than 21 seconds ahead of second-place Carolyn Calhoun of Ewing. Miller capped off her day by anchoring the 4×400 relay in the very next event. Her 68-second split was good enough to hold off Princeton High and give the Pirates third place overall at the MCC.
   Lisa Miller is the Princeton Packet Athlete of the Week.
   "I was really hoping to win the two-mile," Miller said. "I had seen the seed times and I was first so I wanted to do that. I just wanted to try my best in the mile. I really didn’t expect it."
   But the mile played perfectly into Miller’s hands, though with Willever’s speed, it was anybody’s race.
   "I don’t like to start fast, so it was definitely good that it didn’t go out too fast," Miller said. "I was hoping to stay with her. I knew she was a good 800 runner. I don’t know (how the win happened). I kicked it into another gear with about 20 meters from the end. It was after we started the straightaway. I thought, ‘Maybe I can catch her.’"
   The two-mile also started slowly and Miller eased away from the field, though it didn’t feel like a fast finish.
   "It was 20 laps," Miller said of the 160-meter indoor host track in Pennsylvania. "It seemed like forever."
   Miller won’t be out there forever in her next race. She’s the lone area individual girl to make the Meet of Champions, which will be run Sunday at Princeton University’s Jadwin Gym.
   Miller was third in the Group III mile and fifth in the Group III two-mile, but will focus on the mile Sunday, in which she has the fifth fastest seed time, and sit out the two-mile.
   "I’d like to do 5:16," Miller said. "I did that the week before and I hope to be able to do a little faster. I haven’t raced against a lot of (the other girls). It’s only the fourth time I’ve run the mile. I did it at counties and at Groups. I’ve done it in the distance medley, but that’s different."
   "If she goes out and runs hard, it’ll be interesting," Smith added. "All the girls have run faster than they have at Jadwin. She’s got tough competition. Casey Nelson is on her inside shoulder. She won it last year. If she comes through the first five laps and she’s even close to the front, I’d put my money on her to place. She’s just tough."
   Miller took eight days off from cross country following a 35th place finish in her first Meet of Champions appearance. Her times have continued to improve since opening the indoor season.
   "Every meet, she gets more and more confident," Smith said. "She had a slight step back at the Groups, but she’s come back. Now she’s consistently under 5:25 in the mile. She’s going to have to run fast if she’s got a chance."
   And, as she showed in her anchor leg of the relay, she’s a little faster in the shorter distances than she’s been, and Sunday, she won’t be coming off a two-mile race like she did for the MCC 4×400.
   "There was a little break," she said. "They had to do the boys’ two-mile and there were two heats, so that was almost a half hour. I had enough time (to recover). It helped that we were winning when they gave it to me. I don’t usually run the 400. I tried to just sprint as long as possible and luckily we held off Princeton."
   It was typical of a Lisa Miller performance. Not the fastest of starts, but what an ending to the WW-P South standout’s day at the Mercer County Championships.