Area athletic teams enjoyed successful year
By Bob Nuse and Justin Feil, Staff Writer
The 2013 sports season was another successful one for the sports teams in the Princeton Packet coverage area.
The local high schools, as well as Princeton University, enjoyed tremendous success on the field. There were plenty of great moments on the field as well as plenty of news made off the field.
Here is a countdown of the Top 10 athletic events from the Princeton Packet area in 2013.
10. Record-setting runners: Dan Riff, Donyell Reid, Eddison Gulama and Jake Riff were close friends and seniors for West Windsor-Plainsboro South when they ran into the indoor track and field record books. The foursome combined to win the second Eastern States Invitational title in program history, but it was the manner in which they did it that was so special.
Their winning time of 10:13.60 not only broke the school record, it stood as the top time in the nation until the indoor nationals, after which it was still fifth best in the country. Dan Riff led off with a 3:06 split for 1,200 meters, Reid ran 51 seconds for his 400, Gulama split 1:55 for 800 meters and Jake Riff ran 4:20 to anchor it.
The Riff brothers, Gulama and George Hamilton earlier in the year set a new 4×800 indoor Mercer County record of 7:49.70, which was also at the time the second fastest time in the nation.
9. The new kids in town: Despite missing several key members of last year’s first Montgomery High girls fencing team to make a state final, expectations were still high and the Cougars lived up to them.
Seeded fourth, MHS stopped Livingston, 16-11, in the state semifinal to return to the state final for a second straight season. The Cougars lost in the state final, but ended their year with another sparking record, 14-2 that included another Skyland Conference championship, their fifth in a row.
The Montgomery epee squad won its fourth straight District II championship and led the Cougars to their fourth straight overall team title at districts. Katherine Couch captured the individual epee title. Couch went on to finish fourth at states to cap an outstanding career.
8. Leaving a strong legacy: In his 20 years as Director of Athletics at Princeton University, Gary Walters led a department that enjoyed tremendous athletic success. During his tenure, Walters has seen the Tigers win 214 Ivy League championships, a total that is 82 more than the next highest Ivy school during that time. In the last three years, Princeton has won 37 Ivy League championships, including a league-record 15 in 2010-11.
Princeton teams have won 30 national championships in his first 19 years as director of athletics. During that time Princeton has fielded 33 teams in Ivy League sports, and 32 of those have won at least one league championship. In addition, 35 of the 38 Princeton varsity teams have played in postseason championship competition. A total of six Princeton teams have competed in the NCAA Final Four of their sport since he became AD, including four in the calendar year of 2004, tying Princeton with UCLA and Stanford for the most in Division I.
7. One of a kind player: Davon Reed arrived at Princeton Day School touted as a future star. By the time he graduated from the school, he had not only established nearly every Panther record on the court, but also put his name in the Mercer County record book as well.
Reed finished his four-year career with the Panthers with 2,102 points. He became the school’s all-time leading scorer and the third highest career scorer in Mercer County history
Reed’s senior season was the best of four excellent ones in his career with the Panthers. He averaged 23.2 points per game, helping the team to 19 wins and a second straight appearance in the state Prep B tournament final.
Reed, who is now a freshman at the University of Miami, helped the Panthers improve from 11 wins as a freshman to 15 as sophomore, 16 as a junior and 19 as a senior. He certainly left his mark not only on Princeton Day School, but all of Mercer County basketball.
6. Four-peat in style: Four years of Princeton basketball could not have gone much better for the quartet of Niveen Rasheed, Kate Miller, Megan Bowen and Lauren Polansky. They sealed their fourth straight Ivy League championship with an 80-51 win over Brown. They closed their careers 54-2 all-time in league play, an Ivy record. They were unbeaten in their final 20 home Ivy contests.
The season ended with plenty of honors for the Tigers, who reached their fourth straight NCAA tournament, where they fell to Florida State as the No. 9 seed. For the second consecutive season, Rasheed was voted the unanimous Ivy League Player of the Year. Polansky was the Ivy Defensive Player of the Year for the third straight season. Bowen along with Kristen Helmstetter were also All-Ivy team selections.
Following the season, Rasheed, the first AP All-America selection in program history, signed a professional contract to play for Ippokratis Kos of the first division in Kos, Greece.
5. A memorable farewell: It was quite a send-off for Jeremy Beardsley and the Montgomery High School seniors who helped bring a new standard to the girls soccer program. Beardsley, in his final season as head coach of the Cougars, saw his team overcome injuries and some early losses to return to the Group IV state final.
To get there, the Cougars had to overcome the graduation losses of a couple of their most influential players in program history, then they had to deal with injuries that further thinned their talent. MHS got themselves going when they needed it most for a state tournament run.
For the fourth straight year, the Cougars won their sectional. Colby Ciarrocca became the program’s all-time leading scorer. Her overtime goal helped push MHS past Lenape in the state semifinals again to reach the finals, where they came up just a goal short against an outstanding Bridgewater-Raritan team.
4. A master on ever course: As a freshman at Montgomery High School, Alice Chen established herself as one of the top high school golfers in the state. With each year she added more tournament titles to her list and her junior year was no exception.
Chen shot a 71 in the Tournament of Champions final to edge Taylor Totland of Red Bank Catholic by one stroke for the championship. During the season she also claimed a third Somerset County Tournament title and a second Skyland Conference Tournament title. Along the way she helped her team to county and sectional titles as well.
Chen will attend Furman University beginning in the fall and be a member of the golf team. Chen shot a 69 to win the Skyland Conference title for the second straight year. She also shot a 73 to help the Cougars to a sectional title at Bey Lea Golf Course.
3. A new level of success: The West Windsor-Plainsboro South boys cross country team had enjoyed its share of success in recent years. This year, the Pirates girls joined them.
The Pirate team swept to Mercer County Championship crowns. It was an unprecedented fourth for the WW-P South boys, and the second straight for the girls, who have won seven of the last 11 titles. What was new was what came beyond the counties this year on the girls side.
While the boys won their fourth straight Central Jersey Group IV title, the girls won their first in convincing fashion. It got better when they returned the next week to win the Group IV state championship for the first time. The boys won their second straight, a nice achievement for a team that lost five of its top seven runners from a year ago.
At the Meet of Champions, the Pirate boys placed third for their fourth straight top-four finish. The South girls moved up from 11th to fourth in the state.
2. Coming full circle: For the first time since 2006, the Princeton University football team claimed the Ivy League championship. The Tigers shared it with Harvard University, whom they beat in their head-to-head meeting.
Princeton lost its season opener to a Lehigh team that already had two games of experience, then reeled off eight straight wins, including their first six Ivy contests before falling to Dartmouth in the season finale. The Tigers topped Harvard in overtime as Quinn Epperly passed for new records of six touchdowns and 37 completions.
For his accomplishments, Epperly was named the Ivy League’s Offensive Player of the Year. He set an NCAA record with 29 straight completions to start the Cornell game. He led the country in points responsible for per game at 26.6 after throwing for 25 touchdowns and running for another 18. He is the first Ivy player to account for more than 40 touchdowns in a season.
1. Queen of the court: Princeton High School sophomore Christina Rosca had a dream season on the tennis court this past fall. Rosca became the first PHS girls tennis player to capture the state individual title. She also won the Mercer County Tournament title and helped the Little Tigers to the Central Jersey Group III team title.
The year before as a freshman, Rosca had advanced to the state semifinal. She went one step further this year and then won it, but it wasn’t easy. Her final three state matches all went to three sets, but she came through in each of them.
Rosca finished the season with an undefeated record. She was perfection on the court all season long.