Pack pushing improving Lee
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
HAMILTON — Anthony Lee came to the finish area at Veterans Park on Tuesday surrounded by his teammates from West Windsor-Plainsboro North boys’ cross country team.
It was fitting for Lee, who credits his fellow Knights with making him a contributor to one of the fastest teams in the state.
”Just training with the team has helped a lot,” Lee said. “With all our guys, there’s lots of good competition, friendly stuff. We all push each other.”
Lee has been pushed since he started with the Knights as a freshman. He would never have grown as serious about the sport without his team.
”I just thought I was going to do cross country,” Lee said. “I got roped into it all. I remember Sean McNulty, the captain back then, just kind of roped us in. We had a really good team bond and I got roped into track and running year-round.”
Lee has continued to improve every year since then for the Knights. The senior finished first overall Tuesday as the Knights pushed themselves through a hard first mile, then settled in as a group to distance Princeton High, Lawrenceville and Hightstown.
On the girls’ side, it was West Windsor-Plainsboro South that captured the highly anticipated Mercer County meet, edging WW-P North by four points. The WW-P North boys’ did not score against WW-P South though they handled their sister school as well.
”We were trying to keep it together as a pack,” Lee said. “We were supposed to go out hard for Van Cortlandt on Saturday at the Manhattan Invitational, so we wanted to practice getting out hard for the first mile and then kind of keep a tempo the rest of the way.”
Lee and the Knights face their biggest test of the young season Saturday when they compete in the Manhattan Invitational. WW-P North was fourth in last year’s Varsity B race at Van Cortlandt Park.
”The better the teams,” said Knights coach Brian Gould, “the more meaningful it is, the more value it has to go out there and there’s some challenge to beating a team that’s better than you. There’s still a lot of teams out there better than us.”
Said Lee: “Hopefully we just go out there and win it. There will be lots of good competition so it’ll be tough.”
Lee hopes to help the Knights push past some of the best teams on the East Coast on Saturday. His teammates know that he will give his best effort.
”He really actually broke through a lot last year,” Gould said. “I stopped letting him surprise me. He’s such a tough kid. He races hard. He’s competitive. He wants to run well. He’s not one of our captains, but he provides a lot of leadership. He adds a lot of toughness to the team. Those are two important things for us to have a good season.”
Lee was the seventh finisher for WW-P North as they won the B Division at last Saturday’s Shore Coaches Invitational. He is hoping that is just a starting point for the team.
”We were happy,” Lee said. “We think it’s a step in the right direction. We’re still not satisfied though. We want to have some bigger things hopefully at the end of the season.”
Lee is hoping it’s also just a start to his last scholastic season with the Knights.
”It’s a lot different. Senior year came really quick,” he said. “I’m just trying to get out and race with no regrets because it’s the last year to do anything.
”Last year, at the beginning I was No. 5,” he added. “Toward the end, I was seven. This year, I started off at seven, but my goal is to get top three.”
Gould is happy to have a runner with his experience. He has seen Lee continue to work to get to this point. He has begun the year faster than where he left off last year, averaging 5:36 per mile at Holmdel Park for the Shore Coaches, faster than he ran there at both the Group III and Meet of Champions last year.
”He hasn’t settled for anything,” Gould said. “He takes a lot of pride in just how much he can get out of himself, what he is accomplishing with the talent he’s given. He takes a lot of honor in the effort that he puts out. Whether that puts him fourth on one day or eighth on another day, he’s really competing against himself most of the time.”
Except that Anthony Lee has never considered that he is out running by himself. His Knight teammates have been helping him along his entire career.
”We all push each other in practice,” Lee said. “We hang out with each other outside of practice. We all get along.”
They will take to Van Cortlandt together with the hopes of returning with a win and the drive to keep it going through the entire fall of Anthony Lee’s final year with the Knights.