By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Area cross country teams enjoyed history-making success in 2010, and many of the teams return enough to think about improving on their finishes.
The West Windsor-Plainsboro South boys finished third in the state, while the WW-P North boys were fifth. On the girls side, Princeton High School returned to the MOC after a long absence. The PHS girls team brings back several key runners from last year’s sectional championship squad that went on to the Meet of Champions.
”The team looks to be redefining itself with an influx of young runners led by a core of veterans who were involved with the sectional winning and Meet of Champions qualifying team from 2010,” said PHS girls head coach Jim Smirk. “We’d like to defend the sectional title from last year.”
Back for the Little Tigers are: seniors Jenna Cody, Elyssa Gensib and Louise Eisenach and junior Amelia Whaley. Expected to join them as top runners for PHS are: Seniors Abby Hunter and Victoria Barquin and junior Helen Eisenach.
The West Windsor-Plainsboro South boys return a healthy amount of their team from last year’s third-place Meet of Champions team that was second in Group IV and won the Central Jersey Group IV and Mercer County championships. Five of their top seven are back from the MOC team: seniors Dan Sheldon, AJ Chavez and Markan Patel, and juniors Dan Riff and Jake Riff. Also in the mix for the top seven are: seniors Alex Maeda, Karthik Chandrasekaran and Prathik Chandrasekaran, junior George Hamilton and sophomores Karnz Seta and Tom Vinci.
”I think if we stay healthy and injury free, we could be a top team come November,” said Pirates head coach Kurt Wayton. “We’re working very hard. Our goal is to be on the starting line in November knowing in our hearts that the possibility of winning is a real one.”
The PHS boys team had one of its better years in recent history last season, and five of the seven are back from the squad that ran second at the CJ III meet. The five who ran in the sectionals are: seniors Matt Hoffman and Kevin Petrovic, juniors Luke Bozich and Will Flemer and sophomore Kevin Vahdat.
Top runners from last year’s mix are: senior Matt Burns, juniors Ian McIsaac, Joe Rorem, Matthew Wong and Charlie Cavallaro, sophomores Anders Berg, Sage Healy, Conor Donahue, Sabar Dasgupta and Nick Cosaboom.
”We have a lot of good runners,” said PHS boys head coach John Woodside, “but I am unsure of exactly who will be leading us out on the course.”
Woodside is just five wins away from his 100th with the Little Tigers. It could come as early as Sept. 27 against Hopewell Valley and Trenton.
The West Windsor-Plainsboro South girls have four of their top seven back from last year’s Mercer County championship squad. The Pirates went on to finish third at the Central Jersey Group IV meet.
”We are returning four of our top seven runners from last season,” said Pirates head coach Josh Siegel. “Leading the way is Caroline Kellner, followed closely by Nicole Crossey and Katie Donnelly. We’ve had an outstanding summer of training, and as long as we stay healthy, we should surprise a lot of people come the end of the season.”
Back for the Pirates are: Kellner, Crossey, Donnelly and Xinran Pan. New to the varsity are: Cai Cai Hahn, Deirdre Casey, Julia Deen, Amanda Fleres, Penny Luan, Nora Owens, Katie Senko and Yvonne Yu.
The West Windsor-Plainsboro North girls don’t have a senior among their top seven, but they do have plenty back from a team that continued to improve through last year. Five of Knights’ seven runners from last year are returning.
”We return five of our top seven girls from last season, so we are expecting to be very competitive,” said Knights head coach Bill Mealy, who is in his ninth year at the helm. “Our newcomers are looking good and will be challenging to break into the top five. If we can keep everyone healthy, we will have a strong team that will get better as the season progresses.”
The WW-P North boys have only senior Danny Lee and junior Eddie Cunningham back from last year’s Group III state title team. Competing for top seven spots are: seniors Aditya Bhagavathi, Sachin Natarajan, Suraj Nyalakonda, Veer Bhalla, Josh Harris and Ani Thuppul and juniors Praneeth Gottipatti and Brian Alba.
”We lost our top four guys and five of seven to graduation,” said Knights head coach Brian Gould. “Our juniors and seniors will have to rise to the occasion in order for us to continue with the tradition we have had here over the past five years.”
The Montgomery High School boys have three of their top runners back from a year ago in juniors Andy Adamovics, Jack Morrissey and Steven Altieri. Stepping in for the Cougars are: seniors Kai Okada, Austin Liu and Ian Gorman, juniors Peter Lan and Justin Fenner and sophomores Mark Maslanka and David Warner.
”Preseason went well and we are looking forward to a great season,” said MHS head coach Tim Bartholomew. “Our goal this year is to improve on last year’s record and continue to improve our times.”
Stuart Country Day returns two of its top runners from a year ago. All-state junior Elisa Mercando is back, as is sophomore Margaux Glovier. Returning from injury for the Tartans is junior Sheila Riley, and freshman Emily Morgan will make an early impact.
”We did lose a couple girls,” said Stuart head coach Len Klepack. “They started a soccer club, and we lost a couple girls there. All our other girls are new to the team, and we’re hoping they’ll give us a solid seven.”
