Junior defends crown in record-setting time
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Jillian Prentice is still testing herself, and so far she hasn’t found a start too fast for a big finish.
The Montgomery High School junior started quickly and ran from the front to defend her Somerset County Championship on Wednesday at Pleasant Valley Park.
”It was one of my big goals for this season,” Prentice said. “It’s a little bit of a relief, but a big sense of accomplishment.”
Making it all the bigger was her finish time of 18 minutes, 9 seconds. It was more than a half a minute faster than her Somerset County record time of a year ago, and just eight seconds off the fastest time ever run on the course.
”I was overjoyed the way Jillian ran,” said MHS head coach Jim Goodfriend after his team finished third. “Right now, she’s right where we wanted her to be.”
Prentice was coming off winning Division 2 at the Brown Invitational on Saturday in 17:53. That race set her up for Wednesday’s performance.
”At Brown, I just wanted to see how fast I could go out and see if I would die at the end,” Prentice said. “I ended up not. I came into the (county) race with a pretty good boost of confidence. I don’t know if I knew I could go this fast, but knew I could improve from last year.”
She ended up well prepared from the Brown meet for what came at her Wednesday. Last year’s runner-up, Ashley Smolinka of Hillsborough, as well as Ridge senior Dana Guglielmo went out fast with Prentice. All three beat the old course record, and Smolinka stayed with Prentice deep into the race, but not to the very end as Prentice created separation over the final quarter-mile.
”She was right there for the whole race,” Prentice said. “She was always behind me. She never actually came up to my side. She was always behind me.
”It definitely pushed me the whole time,” she added. “It kept me focused. With them right on me the whole race, it got the best possible time out of me today.”
The Cougars also got a strong race from Lara Shegosky, who was ninth overall. MHS finished third despite being down one of their regular top-five finishers.
”I think our team did awesome,” Prentice said. “Allegra Kettlekamp, she stepped it up. She took the place of Katie Manfredi, who was sick today. Even though we missed Katie, we still did awesome. I’m happy we got third.”
Added Goodfriend: “I knew we couldn’t be better than that. Ridge is ranked about third in the state. Hillsborough is about sixth or eighth. They’re too deep for us. I was happy we did that considering my fifth girl was home sick.”
He was even more enthused by the way that Prentice ran and how it sets her up for the remainder of the season. It continues on Wednesday with the Skyland Conference Championships after she eclipsed his goals for the county race.
”I told her I was hoping she’d run 18:35,” Goodfriend said. “They started and it went really fast. The race I was looking for was last week on Saturday. I thought she had to run a good race at Brown to get ready for this week. She ran 17:53. She ran the fourth fastest time of the day. I figured that would get her in good shape for today.
”It was perfect, a little windy but it was cool and she likes it colder. And the other two girls pushed her. When she gets pushed, she runs faster.”
Prentice appears to be running faster than ever before. Now she can do so from the start of a race to the end.
”I do feel like I’m where I need to be,” Prentice said. “Seeing how I improved my time from last year, I feel like I’m doing better than last season.
”I didn’t really have much confidence in going out fast and not dying. Now that I know I can go out fast and won’t die, it will definitely help me in the later races.”

