WW-P South grad in first NCAA meet
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Barely one year after Brian Leung made history as the first West Windsor-Plainsboro South runner to win the Meet of Champions and reach the Foot Locker Nationals, he lined among the best collegiate runners in the country.
Leung, a freshman at Princeton University, finished 121st at the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind., on Monday.
”The race was amazing,” Leung said. “I’ve never been in such an elite field with so many people with equal or better talent than me.”
Leung’s 15 minutes, 21 seconds split halfway through the race was good for a new 5-kilometer personal best. The second half, though, wasn’t as fast and he finished the 10k in 31:04.2. He wanted to be faster and he wanted to be higher in the overall standings. He was 12th among freshmen.
”After I got done with the race, I was pretty disappointed,” Leung said. “It’s tough seeing all the freshmen ahead of me. One was fifth and one was seventh. Seeing guys that are capable of that stuff, it was humbling.”
Leung did top the young man he succeeded as New Jersey Meet of Champions winner. He passed two-time MOC champion Craig Forys, a Colts Neck graduate who is now a sophomore at Michigan, late in the race. Mohamed Khadraoui, a two-time MOC champion at JFK Paterson, finished sixth Monday in his senior year at Iona.
Leung hopes the experience gained Monday helps him to climb into that stratosphere one year soon. Being one of the few freshmen to compete should help.
”I’m looking at it as big advantage for next year,” he said. “Next year, when the sophomores are going to the Big Show for the first time, I’ll already know how the race goes.”
Leung was one of two Tigers in the season’s final race. Both he and senior captain Michael Maag, who finished 79th Monday, qualified by virtue of their top-10 finishes at the Mid-Atlantic Regionals. It was a final confirmation of how well he was prepared for the jump from WW-P South to Princeton University.
”Both academically and athletically,” Leung said. “The teachers at South are great. The coursework is pretty rigorous, even for a public school. And the stuff I did with (Coach Kurt) Wayton, he couldn’t have prepared me any more.”
Leung was in the Tigers’ top three all season, including a sixth-place overall finish at the Heptagonal Championship before he capped his first collegiate season with a trip to nationals.
”I was very confident in getting myself to the level,” Leung said. “It was a question of how well I’d do at that level.”