PHS’ Gengel wins first girls’ pole vault title
By: Justin Feil
The biggest sign of just how far the West Windsor-Plainsboro North boys’ track and field team has come in four years was the disappointed looks on the faces of the Knight athletes after the conclusion of the Mercer County Championships on Saturday.
Despite a second-place showing their best in the program’s history the only thing they could agree on was that it could have been better.
"I’m disappointed too," said Albert McCullan, the Knights’ top points winner Saturday. "It’s hard to know you could do better in every event, and just don’t."
Even in winning the long jump, an event that McCullan couldn’t possibly have finished higher in, he found fault.
"I jumped 20-feet-5, and I wanted 21 today," the junior said. "We wanted more. We could have gotten more. Here and there, we could have done better."
The Knights, who were eighth last year and ninth the year before that, could also have done a lot worse. Led by McCullan’s first-place finish in the long jump, Mike Pilgrim’s gold medal in the 400 with McCullan coming in second, second-place finishes by Joey Mastrangelo in the 200 and the 4×400 team with strong third and fourth legs by McCullan and Pilgrim and third-place finishes by Pilgrim in the 400 hurdles and Roland Bisio in the 3,200, they finished with 61½ points, trailing only Trenton’s 85 points. The Hun School was third with 52 points and sang a different tune.
"I’m so happy with third," said Hun senior Eric Greubel, who was second in the javelin and triple jump. "We knew we weren’t going to win. Trenton is so good and they’re deep. We didn’t know North was so good. Getting third was so awesome."
Hun had only three boys score points, but they were all big points. Brian Cortina won the shot put and the discus, and Morgan Seybert won the 3,200 and was third in the 1,600. It was enough to add up for the Raiders’ bronze medal.
"Everyone doubted us coming in because we did poorly at indoor counties," said Greubel, who will try to walk on as a multi-event athlete at Penn State next fall. "But we knew Morgan could win one race at least. He’s coming back from being dehydrated so we didn’t know about two. We knew Cortina could do well. A lot depended on me. Morgan was only going to run the mile if I did well in the javelin."
There were highlights among every area team. The Princeton High boys finished 11th overall led by the third-place finishes of Ryan Turpin in the high jump and Tom McKinley in the pole vault. The West Windsor-Plainsboro South boys were 12th as Ted Mavraganis came in fifth in his second-ever 800 while Joe Ennis was fifth in the 3,200.
On the girls’ side, Princeton was the top Packet-area finisher for the second straight year. The Little Tigers were fourth led by Natalie Gengel’s win in the first-ever Mercer County pole vault. Most remarkable about the achievement was that she was able to compete at all after being on crutches a week and a half ago with a severe ankle sprain.
"It was a surprise she was able to jump," said PHS coach John Woodside. "It was a good moment for our team today. She’s really talented. She’s a gymnast. She has great upper-body strength and she can run 27 for the 200, so she has speed. She’s worked hard and it’s paid off."
PHS’ Meaghan Lynch was second in the 1,600 and fourth in the 800, Alison Crowley was third in the 100 hurdles, Elesha Casimir was tied for third in the 200 and the three were also part of the fourth-place 4×400 relay as the Little Tigers scored 37 points.
"As a team, I think we were all coming off of injuries so it’s been kind of a rough season that way," said Crowley, who couldn’t hurdle for six weeks due to tendonitis. "We were hoping to do well. We were hoping for third, but everyone seemed to put their best into everything. I don’t think anyone was disappointed."
Crowley appeared to get a personal-best second place in the 100 hurdles, she was even congratulated by the Hopewell Valley runner who was awarded the silver, but had to settle for bronze on the officials’ ruling. But with two more weeks of training, she and the Little Tigers should be healthier for the sectional meet.
"In the end, I’m happy about today," Crowley said. "I did run the fastest time of the day. In the second heat, I ran 15.8."
WW-P North’s Gretchen Kieling can claim fastest in the county after she became the first female Knight to win a Mercer County outdoor track event, the 400 hurdles, Saturday.
"It felt really good," said the Knights senior, who also anchored the 4×400 relay to a school record 4:11.8 as North finished seventh as a team. "I’m proud our team is showing itself finally. This feels really good. It’s such a good meet. It’s a good area. We’re running against some of the best runners in the state.
"I knew I might be one of the favored people, but you’re never sure who’s going to have a good day. I think it was (a good day). I think that was the best I’ve run it in terms of form."
Allison Warner may have felt like the fastest in the county even if the West Windsor-Plainsboro South junior didn’t win her 1,600. She ran 17 seconds faster than her previous best to finish a surprise third to help the Pirates finish in a tie for eighth. Earlier, Pirate teammates Michelle Barbarasch and Lisa Miller went 2-3 in the 3,200, respectively. Emily Piuggi was sixth in the 400 hurdles.
"I was really surprised," Warner said of her 1,600. "I can’t believe it. I was in shock. It went by so quickly."I got out pretty well in the beginning of the race. I tried not to get boxed in. I tried to draft off the people ahead of me."
The win helps lift her spirits for the upcoming sectionals that will be held in two weeks. Though they fell shy of a third county crown this school year, the Pirates hope to show well in the state meets.
"I’m really excited," Warner said. "This definitely recharged my season. A couple weeks ago, I was discouraged. I took the winter off and it wasn’t coming back fast."
Angela Harrington enjoyed Stuart’s only top-six finish by placing in the long jump, and the Tartans’ Emily Driscoll also broke the school record in the 3,200 as the Tartans finished 15th. Hun did not have a female athlete place in the top six at WW-P North.
Finishing second in their friendly confines added to the pain for the Knight boys, who now try to prepare for the state sectionals, a big meet and the first step toward establishing themselves on the state level, but it’s not the same as counties.
"In a sense, there is more at stake here," said North boys’ coach Mike Jackson. "This is your home field, these are your local peers. It’s like having bragging rights where you live. That would have been real special. I have no shame in losing to Trenton. I told their coach that it was an honor to give them a scare."
It’s a scare that’s taken four years to build. It was only three years ago that McCullan’s only medal was a sixth-place showing the 200 at the counties, and he was one of just two North athletes to finish in the top six.
"We’re a different program now," Jackson said. "We have completely different goals and expectations. We’re no longer the underdog. We feel we’re the best team in the county. We lost to a better team today."
Sometimes that solace isn’t even good enough.
"We still could have done better," McCullan said. "What we wanted to do, we didn’t accomplish. From this, we are going to work harder, knowing we could do better."
It’s that attitude that helped the WW-P North boy’s team grow quickly, and some year the results of it will be a Mercer County Championship.