5d79c93fb02a77fde224028e4f85ff39.jpg

Pirates’ Leung runs down a dream

Senior is winner at Meet of Champions

By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
   HOLMDEL — Brian Leung enjoyed a pasta party and played the Guitar Hero video game with his West Windsor-Plainsboro South teammates Friday.
   The Pirates senior treated it like any other pre-race night, except that it wasn’t. Saturday, he became the first Mercer County male to win the Meet of Champions when he ran away from Gill St. Bernard’s Doug Smith and the rest of the field to win in 15:32.08, the fifth best time ever at Holmdel Park.
   ”It’s amazing,” Leung said. “Just to be able to achieve your goal that you’ve been looking to get for such a long time, it’s amazing. It’s an awesome feeling.”
   Leung led the Pirates to a surprise seventh-place finish in the team standings. Sam Macaluso made a big move up over his Group IV finish to place 44th in 16:45. Kevin Foy was 52nd in 16:49. Freshman Brian Shoefer was 106th in a Pirates’ freshman record 17:25. Senior Jeff McKee was 108th in his final MOC.
   ”We had the race I wanted us to have last week,” said Pirates head coach Kurt Wayton. “We peaked a week late. Our guys ran great.”
   Foremost among those top performers was Leung who took front and center stage by dropping nine seconds off last week’s Group IV championship time.
   ”We put it out there,” Wayton said. “We took healthy risks. He’s run 75-80 miles per week for 18 weeks in a row, not including this week. That’s consistency at its best.”
   Leung’s win completed a comeback from one of his lowest points, a seventh-place finish at the Outdoor Track and Field Championships last spring. In five months he surged to the top of the state in cross country.
   ”I was really disappointed when I ran 9:14,” Leung said. “I was heartbroken. My hip was hurting and I really didn’t feel good. A couple weeks later, Wayton put the idea in my head: ‘If you want, Brian, you can go get Smith.’ I didn’t really believe it until after Manhattan. It wasn’t until this season that I really wanted to go for this.”
   Smith provided motivation for Leung. As the highest returning finisher from last year’s MOC, he was tabbed as the favorite. Leung kept a sign with Smith’s name above his bed throughout the season. But by Saturday night, it would be gone.
   ”I have to take it down tonight and make a new sign,” Leung said. “I still have it up. I looked at it one last time this morning.”
   Leung will compete in the Footlocker Northeast Regional Championships on Saturday at Van Cortlandt Park. Smith will be there, as well as another of the state’s top runners, Brandon Jarrett of St. Benedict’s Prep.
   ”It’s going to be a really tough race,” Leung said. “I think I should be able to get one of the top spots. Of course, this gives me a lot of confidence.
   ”I started my taper this week. I hit 80 miles last week so I felt horrible going into last week’s race. I felt good going into today. I’m still going to be tapering the next couple weeks so hopefully I can carry this on to nationals.”
   Leung doubled his good news Saturday by announcing his verbal commitment to attending Princeton University.
   ”It’s official,” Leung said. “Another four years on the towpath.”
   Leung will enter Princeton as a state champion, something he had dreamed about this season. Saturday’s meet didn’t quite match the pre-race hype, though, as an ill Smith fell during the race and did not finish. Leung would have been tough to beat anyway.
   ”I knew it was going to be really tough,” Leung said. “Coming into it, I was very confident. I had the best summer I could ever imagine. Wayton kept on telling me, ‘You’re more prepared than anyone else in this race.’ If you have faith in your training, then you know you’re going to do well.
   ”Our plan was to make a move at the mile mark, right on the dirt road, on the downhill. I made my move, I made a surge, and he didn’t go with me. He led the first mile. I think we went out a little too fast. It was like 5:07, which is a lot faster than I did last week, almost a good 10 seconds faster. I was hurting, and I kept going. When I came off The Bowl, I looked back and no one was there. That’s when I knew I had it. I just gutted it out.”
   Leung got an emotional lift when he looked back coming off the famous Bowl, the highest point in the course.
   ”Coming off the top of The Bowl, I felt horrible,” Leung said. “I’ve never felt so dead in my life. I just wanted it to be over, so I kept pumping. I wanted to recover a little bit, so I was jogging a little bit after The Bowl. I definitely took it a little easier than I was supposed to.
   ”I thought it would be a sprint,” he added of his pre-race expectations. “I was nervous. He had me going the first mile. We were going fast the first mile. I didn’t expect it to go out that fast. It was very surprising when I didn’t see him.”
   No one who has been around Leung was surprised to see him up at the front in his final scholastic season. It’s something that has been building with each year of training. His former coach, Chris Bond, who coached Leung until early in his junior year, knew he was a different breed of athlete.
   ”He just never gave up,” Bond said. “Even when he had all these injuries sophomore year, Coach Wayton would take him in the pool and work him out. I would occasionally come in and watch what they were doing and I’d say, ‘Brian, it’s OK to stop. Coach Wayton is going to kill you.’ And he wouldn’t. He’d go and get on the bike for 30 minutes after a killer workout in the pool. At that point, I realized he had something special that I’d never seen before.”
   Said Wayton: “Anyone that’s seen him race once has realized that the kid is something. The kid is the hungriest kid I’ve ever been around in my life. It’s never been a matter of motivating him. It’s been a matter of holding him back.”
   There was no holding Leung back as he reached one of his top goals for the season Saturday. He did so in convincing fashion with an 18-second win over runner-up Andrew Brodeur of Brick Memorial. It was a win that Wayton hopes will inspire his returning teammates.
   ”There is only going to be one Brian Leung. There will never be another one of those,” Wayton said. “But do I think his records will be broken? Yes, hopefully sooner than later. Brian understands that. That’s what it’s about. You don’t just look at the bar, you reach for it. Brian’s put the bar at a very hard to get area, however, the good thing is there are kids very talented in the program now that have been witness to what it takes to get there. Hopefully they take that and get out there and get it done.”
   The MOC crown was the latest achievement for Leung, who already set the county meet record, posted the top Manhattan Invitational time and won sectional and group titles.
   ”It doesn’t happen very often,” Leung said. “It’s really amazing to be able to check off each thing I wanted to accomplish. I haven’t missed anything yet. Hopefully I can keep it going next week.
   ”It was big,” he added. “I think next week is going to be bigger. There will be more guys around me. I was by myself with a mile and a half to go. Not to downplay anyone else’s performance, but I still have a lot left in the tank.”
   He already has a new trophy to show for how much he has developed in a standout senior year. His records may be broken, but forever he will be the first boys’ champion from Mercer County.
   ”I’ve been looking at this race for a long time,” Leung said. “It’s great to finally have it.”
p>