PHS’ Crowley enjoys record day at sectionals
By: Justin Feil
Alison Crowley was surprised to see her name in the program as the Central Jersey Group III record-holder in the triple jump.
"It was misspelled," said the Princeton High junior. "I was wondering how my name got in there. It was the first time they contested the event. It was pretty cool, but I didn’t want it to disappear so quickly. I wouldn’t be good to have the record as a sophomore and lose it as a junior."
So Crowley made sure she held onto the record, while improving it to a respectable 35 feet, 1 inch to capture the Central Jersey Group III title Friday in the first day of the sectional meet.
"It was a weak record," Crowley said. "It seemed weak when I saw what I did to it. My coach told me before last year’s, a week before states that I was going to do it. I had about a week of practice this year too.
"I knew I could jump 35 feet. I know I can do a 36-foot jump. You feel like you can go farther, and feel like you can go faster. I’m a lot stronger than I was in the past. I should be at least in the high 35s."
Crowley might have gone farther Friday if she didn’t have two other events Saturday, and she made the best of her rest. She captured the sectional 100 hurdles, then ran the second leg for the 4×400 team that broke the school record with a 4:03.86 and finished third to advance to Saturday’s state Group III meet at Egg Harbor. In all, she had a hand in 26 of the 38 points that fourth-place PHS scored at sectionals.
Alison Crowley is the Princeton Packet Athlete of the Week.
"She started working with the triple jump a year ago," said PHS head coach Andre Bridgett. "Although it hasn’t been continuous, we do some drills that simulate the movement. And she’s become a very fast runner. That’s helped.
"She’s executed very well. She has a high level of confidence. It all stems from her knowing that she put in the work."
The work isn’t done yet, however, as Crowley hopes to return to the Meet of Champions for the second straight year. Last year, she advanced only in the triple jump. She has a chance to make all three of her events this time. Her motivation is the same as it was for the triple jump Friday she can’t miss something she made a year ago. It would be that much better if she was joined by some PHS teammates.
"We’re ranked sixth in Group III (in the 4×400)," she said. "I hope we can make the Meet of Champions with that. Just to get there would be so cool. Our slowest relay leg was 61.5 and that’s not very slow. I think we can all push ourselves faster. We have the potential to go under 4:00 or be right at 4:00."
Having Crowley on the team certainly helps. Regardless of which leg she runs, she moves the Little Tigers up. Saturday, she took the baton from freshman Elesha Casimir in second place, and fell back to third place before moving through the frontrunners to take first by her hand-off.
"That’s the second time running (the second leg) ever," Crowley said. "We were at East Coast Relays and we had a huge problem. We changed it around so we wouldn’t have to deal with that again. Some of the girls are really scared about the meet and making the Meet of Champions. But it’s so cool that we made it to the state Groups already with this. We didn’t do that last year."
Crowley did reach the Group meet last year in the hurdles, but she’d like to make a trip to the Meet of Champions in that as well. Saturday, she wasn’t pushed and ran almost a second slower than she did to finish third at the Mercer County Championships.
"She did what was required to be in front," Bridgett said. "This week was about beating as many bodies as she could.
"She’s come a long way. She’s still pretty new in both hurdles and triple jump. We know it’ll require running a little faster and jumping farther. The goal is to make it back to the Meet of Champs in both."
And beyond that, it would be nice to top off her Group III meet with another triple jump record, one that should help familiarize everyone with the correct spelling of Alison Crowley’s name.
"I’m third in the state," Crowley said. "I think I can jump farther next week. I have to keep doing it."

