Girls second at Shore Coaches
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Belinda Liu has embraced her role and her Princeton High School girls cross country team, and the result has been a more enjoyable experience this year.
The sophomore was the Little Tigers’ fourth finisher, in 27th place overall, behind Elyssa Gensib (second), Jenna Cody (sixth) and breakthrough freshman Julie Bond (25th) to help PHS tie Northern Highlands for the top overall team in the Varsity C race at the Shore Coaches Invitational on Saturday. Northern Highlands was the winner on the sixth-finisher tiebreaker.
”A huge component of our racing strategy and how we practice, a huge theme is unity,” Liu said. “It showed how much we trust each other to be able to race that well.”
PHS had not been happy with its showing at the Passaic Invitational the week before, but bounced back in a strong way even with losing one of its runners to injury midway through the Shore Coaches meet. Just behind Liu was Louise Eisenach in 30th and Mary Sutton in 55th to round out PHS’ six finishers.
”I was thrilled,” said PHS girls coach Jim Smirk. “Coming off Passaic, where I thought we had a pretty below average day, we sat down and said, are we doing the work we need to do? The team really refocused themselves and brought a quality race to Shore Coaches.”
The PHS boys won the Varsity C race with 86 points, 11 better than runner-up Indian Hills. Despite not having Kevin Ivanov, their top finisher in recent races, available for the varsity race, the Little Tigers had too much balance for the field. Sophomore Conor Donahue ran 17:11 for seventh place, Will Flemer was 15th, Sage Healy was 18th, Matt Hoffman was 25th and Ian McIsaac rounded out their top five in 28th place. Matthew Wong (50th) and Joe Rorem (59th) also ran for the varsity.
In the Championship boys division, West Windsor-Plainsboro South was second with 80 points, two better than West Chester Henderson. Tom Vinci was the top Pirates finisher in 12th with Dan Sheldon 13th and Jake and Dan Riff 16th and 17th respectively. AJ Chavez was 27th. WW-P North was ninth with 219 points. Danny Lee was 23rd and Eddie Cunningham was 28th for the Knights. CBA won the boys race with 15 points and five of the top six finishers overall.
In the Varsity B boys race, Montgomery High finished 15th. Andy Adamovics finished 11th for the Cougars in 16:47. In the Varsity E boys race, Hun’s Gilles Merckx was sixth overall in 17:02. Antonio Pinherio was 58th in 18:55.
The WW-P South girls were ninth in the Varsity A race. Caroline Kellner was third individually in 18:42. In the Varsity B girls race, WW-P North was eighth and Montgomery was 10th. Jillian Kelly led the Cougars in 16th place in 20:29. Manolya Altan was 21st overall for WW-P North in 20:47.
The 90 team points was their lowest point total ever at a Shore Coaches Invitational, and their second-place finish was their top finish ever.
”We know we have Elyssa out front and how good Jenna has been out front for years,” Smirk said. “The question was how we would do 3-4-5 this year. We ran just as fast, and we’re faster up front too.
”If we can bring a level of intensity to practice every day, we’re going to give ourselves a legitimate shot to be up front come championship time.”
Liu is happy to be a part of it this year. Last year, she was not happy when her family relocated from Edison to Princeton a day before the start of her freshman year.
”I’m sure I came off as very egotistical and not a very enjoyable person to be around,” Liu said. “Needless to say, that first month I wallowed around in self pity. I wasn’t part of the decision to move.”
Liu managed to be one of the top 12 runners, but not one of the top seven to run championship meets. And she didn’t fully embrace PHS’ team concept until this year, when she realized what a vital role she has, particularly with the loss of usual No. 3 runner Amelia Whaley to a broken toe.
”It took this month’s training to understand what Coach Smirk was talking about,” Liu said. “It took that month to understand how much is riding on each other. Now I know you can take those risks. You begin to run with more confidence because you know there are people behind you and ahead of you ready to pull you through the whole race.”
Liu needed to remember how much the team needed her and how much she could depend on the team as she took on the challenging Holmdel Park course for the first time Saturday.
”I’d say it’s a really good indicator of where you are in the season and how your training is paying off,” Liu said. “The first mile is incredibly difficult. The last mile is downhill, but you still need to keep pushing through. It provides an indication of where you are with your mental toughness as well as your physical. It’s a challenging course, but it’s also a rewarding course.”
Smirk was not surprised to see Liu do well in her first big race there. He’s been impressed with her development since last season.
”With losing Amelia Whaley, we were really struggling in the middle,” Smirk said. “We didn’t have anyone to lock down the 3 position. She’s done the work for us. She’s been a rock in the middle for us. She’s running just as fast as (graduated senior) Chrissy Glover was for us, and to have a sophomore doing the same sort of times is nice. I’m not sure I would have thought of her doing it for this year.
”She’s a good swimmer as well. She’s a very strong kid. With having Amelia go down, we looked around and said, what are we going to do? It’s unusual for a sophomore to take that responsibility on. She’s handled it incredibly well.”
Liu has already shown some toughness in the batch meets. She came back to outkick a WW-P South runner to help PHS edge the Pirates. PHS’ only team loss this year came against Robbinsville, but the Little Tigers looked like a new team at the Shore Coaches meet.
”I think the team’s performance in general was incredible,” Liu said. “As a team we strive to play off each other’s abilities and form a cohesive unit. From (Saturday’s) performance, Julie Bond did really, really well. It was her breakout race. We were able to work off each other to achieve what we did.”
Liu is feeling more attached to the Little Tigers this season. It’s made her a better racer.
”This year, you know your team counts as much on you as you count on the team,” she said. “You don’t want to let them down. As part of the top 7, it’s very different because you know you can depend on someone and they’re depending on you.
”Our biggest advantage is ourselves,” she added. “It’s the fact we trust each other, and we’re able to work together like we do.”