Macaluso looking to cap big year at MOC

Pirates’ Leung, North boys seek XC crowns

By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
   Sam Macaluso had a freshman year of cross country that most anyone would take, but he wasn’t satisfied.
   Macaluso returned for his sophomore year at West Windsor-Plainsboro South with one thing in mind.
   ”I wanted to get better,” Macaluso said. “I didn’t think I had a great freshman year. I just really got into it and everyone sort of brought me along. Brian (Leung) is always a good motivator. Kevin (Foy) and Jeff (McKee) helped me along too.”
   Macaluso made a big jump in last year’s outdoor track and field season. It was a springboard to the summer training that put him in position for a giant leap in cross country this year. Macaluso was fighting off a cold when he finished third for the Pirates, 25th overall, at the Group IV state meet to help them to their first Meet of Champions berth as a wild card.
   ”We felt pretty good going into the race that we could advance somehow,” Macaluso said. “After the race it seemed like we were kind of disappointed but not sure yet. We looked at the results on the board and it said we had fourth. We were pretty sure we got in after we looked at the board. Our average was pretty good.
   ”It was good. I was really glad that we made it,” he added. “After the summer we had, I wasn’t too surprised.”
   The Pirates posted an average of 16:58, aided greatly by Leung’s 15:41 first-place finish. Their average was better than second-place Old Bridge and third-place Jackson Memorial.
   The Pirates will try to move up at the MOC at Holmdel Park on Saturday against the likes of Group III state champion West Windsor-Plainsboro North. In the girls’ race, Montgomery High’s Jillian Prentice and WW-P South’s Katie Kellner compete as individuals. The girls’ race begins at 10 a.m. The boys run at 10:45.
   ”They’ve exceeded all expectations to the point we don’t even have a goal for this race,” said Pirate boys’ coach Kurt Wayton. “If Sam gets out and has a fighting heart, he should compete well against North’s pack. We’re not competing against North, but we have that constant frame of reference.
   ”I think the bar keeps getting tapped up and tapped up. If they run well, we should do fine. I want to see our kids compete at their peak. They’re healthy and ready to go. It’s been such an exciting season. We’ve surpassed team, individual, community, my expectations. These kids have done an amazing amount of successful racing. Some of it’s come out of left field. A lot of it has come out of we had a great summer.”
   Macaluso rode the summer of training to a fifth-place finish at the Mercer County Championships. His time of 16:07 was 23 places and 1:06 better than his freshman finish the year before. At the sectionals, he improved 1:12 over last year to finish 10th.
   ”It’s pretty much off the chart,” Wayton said. “He’s pretty talented. He’s very good on the track. He had an OK cross country freshman year. Indoor track, we were calling him Tiny Tim because he had the (Bob) Cratchit cough for about four months. In outdoors, he really came around. He went from 4:53 to 4:40 in one race at the Mercer Relay Championships. From then on, he hung around the 4:40s. That’s pretty good for a freshman.
   ”He’s solid. He’s approaching some of Brian’s time from Brian’s sophomore year. I think Brian ran 16:04 (at Veterans Park), and Macaluso ran 16:07. At Holmdel, he was very ill. I hope to see a big improvement from him this week. I think he can do great.”
   In his first Group IV meet, Macaluso finished right at the Pirates’ average of 16:58. Wayton wouldn’t be surprised to see a 20-second improvement. Macaluso believes he should run better in his second straight week at Holmdel.
   ”I thought it wasn’t that I wasn’t healthy,” he said. “I got out pretty bad. I think I need to hit the first mile harder. I think it’s mainly getting out. And I’m a little healthier.
   ”It was a lot different from sectionals,” he added. “We didn’t make it out of sectionals last year so I didn’t have the chance to run Holmdel at groups. We learned a lot from it this year. It was good. It was fun.”
   Macaluso is looking for a big finish to his sophomore season of cross country, and for the Pirates. Leung will go head-to-head in a much anticipated showdown with Doug Smith of Gill St. Bernards.
   ”I’d like to see Brian win and I’d like our team to be really low,” Macaluso said. “I don’t want to put a time on myself. I want to run really hard. And I want my teammates to run hard.
   ”I want to go out with a bang. I have junior year (coming) and I’d like to have a strong finish this year to be confident going into next year.”
   The MOC is just a start for Macaluso. Just a sophomore, he could be a regular contender there over the next two years. He has shown promise with the steps he has taken since last year.
   ”I think he’ll be one of the top runners in the state in the next couple years,” Wayton said. “He just needs to mature physically and keep up his work.
   ”I think he’s going to be this good. He has great form. Whenever I talk about form, I talk about Katie Kellner and Macaluso. They have good posture, good alignment. Sam runs with little wasted effort. They’re forward and run with little wasted effort. If I get him some good training, he’s a kid that can really light it up.”
   Finishing his season at the Meet of Champions is a sign of just how far Sam Macaluso has already come this year. It has helped the Pirates develop as well to exceed their expectations.
   ”Going into freshman year, I didn’t really have any expectations,” Macaluso said. “I thought the idea of making varsity would be cool. This year, I came in thinking, I should be in one of the top three positions. I wanted to work a lot harder because I knew I’d be scoring for the team and helping the team. I just wanted to do a lot better this year.
   ”I look back and I really like what I see with the improvement. I think it came with the summer I had and growing in age also helped. Learning more about racing. I’m pretty happy with the season.”