By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
JAMESBURG — When Nikhil Pulimood finished second to teammate Tom Vinci at last year’s Mercer County cross country championship meet, he knew his time would come a year later.
”It’s a tradition here that the top senior wins and Tom did it last year,” said Pulimood, a senior at West Windsor-Plainsboro High South. “He had 10 seconds on me. This year I felt like I had to keep that tradition going.
”Our school is all about tradition and continuing the legacy of the guys who came before us like (Sam) Macaluso, (Brian Leung) and all those guys who did great things here. We just have to honor them. That is what Coach (Kurt) Wayton is trying to do. Build a team that is consistent and always at the top of our sport.”
Pulimood finished first and junior Tim Bason was second to lead the Pirates to their fifth straight county championship. The margin of victory, 53-69, was their closest in the five years but continued the winning tradition.
”While I am happy we won against some very good teams, I am also realistic and the kids are realistic that we have to be better from 3-6 in order to make a run down the stretch,” said Wayton, whose team finished ahead of second-place Notre Dame. “But our 1-2, there are not many teams in the state that have a better 1-2 punch than us right now.”
Pulimood finished in 15 minutes, 50 seconds to beat Bason by five seconds. It was the third straight year that a South senior finished first in the race and a South junior was second.
”Coach told me that at one and a half miles to just go and that is what I did,” Pulimood said. “I think I did it a little bit after that. Today I wasn’t feeling 100 percent. I felt good enough to just trust my training and trust what Coach Wayton has been telling us.
”Timmy sticks on me and then Sam has to stick on Timmy and then we have Zabih (Kotecha), Sam Williams) and Zach (Crossey) and it is all about running together. Racing alone is the worst thing ever. It is so much better running together. That is what we did last year and it worked for us.”
Bason, who finished 11th at the Mercer meet last year, had his best race of his career to finish second.
”This was my fastest time,” Bason said. “I PRed by about 13 seconds. I just did what Nikhil told me. He said we were going to stay at a good pace and then at about a mile and a half he would start to kick it in a little bit. From there on I just tried to stay as close as I could and stick on Conor (Murohy of Allentown) for the most part. It was a really good race.”
In tradition holds true, Bason has a chance to come away with a win next year at the Mercer meet.
”I am going to hope to carry on the tradition and give it my all,” he said. “Last year I had tendonitis in my right foot and came back and got 11th place. The rankings said I would come in third. I didn’t really think about it. What I do is go out and give it my all. Sometimes I feel good and sometimes I don’t.”
Kotecha was 15th, Williams 17th and Crossey 18th to round out the top five for the Pirates. Thomas Moxam was 26th and Brenden O’Shea 38th to round of the Pirate runners.
”Nikhil, if he can stay healthy down the stretch, he is going to be one of the best in the state,” Wayton said. “Tim is a special talent, a special kid and a special worker. And he is a gamer. Some kids you ask them to step up and they get a glazed look. Tim just nods and says you got it coach. In 15 years of coaching that is the rarest thing you can find.
”The guy who ended up winning it for us was Zabih Kotecha. He had been in a funk, which happens in our sport. He wants it but his body is not responding. But he fought through that today, which is what seniors do.”
The win is just the start of what the Pirates hope will be a special finish in the final month of the season.
”I think it puts us in a good spot,” Wayton said. “We come back here in two weeks for the sectional meet on the same course. It will give the guys something to improve upon and I think we will improve. I believe in these guys. I believe in this year. We are going to do everything in our power to make sure we put the best product out there in November.”
WW-P North finished fourth with 97 points, just two away from third place. Kian Jackson was seventh in 16:43 to lead the Knights. Shuming Teoh, Colin Stern and Nicolas Stalzer finished 20th, 21st and 22md, respectively, while Justin Bauter rounded out the top five by finishing 27th.
”We had a tough day today,” North coach Brian Gould said. “We have some things we need to work on. We have two weeks before sectionals. Anything that went wrong today is entirely in our control and fixable. If we can fix those things and compete better we’ll make it to states, which is a team goal.
”Our freshmen in the freshmen race did great. I am really proud of those guys. And we ran a freshman in the varsity race, Matt Santamaria, and he did really well. The freshmen took first as a team, even without him.”
Princeton, which has been battling injuries all season, finished fifth as a team without two of its top runners in the lineup.
”In a sense we were without three of our most talented runners – two didn’t race and one dropped out,” Princeton coach Mark Shelley said. “Given that scenario we were very pleased with their efforts. We had two freshmen (Nick Delaney and Alex Ackerman) run in the top five for us today. Jonathan Petrozzini, who ran second for us, wasn’t even going to run varsity today and when Jacob’s (Rist) foot was bothering him we threw him in and he had a nice race.”
Noah Chen was 25th in 17:35 to lead the Little Tigers. Petrozzini finished 33rd, Delaney was 34th, Ackerman finished 40th and Aidan Donahue was 50th to round out the top five.
”Overall I was pleased with the effort,” Shelley said. “I asked them if I told you before the season that Alex Roth was injured, Jacob was injured, and James (Cao) would not be able to finish the race how would you feel if we were still fifth in the county? I’d take it when you consider how young we are when you take those three out of the equation.”
The Hun School finished 13th overall, led by Alex Ill who was 28th in 17:43. Sean Duffy was the second finisher for the Raiders, 62nd overall.
”I think they had a strong performance,” Hun coach Angela Rieder said. “Our varsity has been working really hard this week. They have been really motivated. The heat and the hill and the wind were a little bit off-putting.
”Alex did great. When we saw him originally he was about 41st around the mile mark and he made it up to 28th. So he was really steady and really strong. He went out smart. Sean Duffy did great as well. He is a senior so he only has a couple left so he is focused right now. We’re hoping to see some good things from him the next couple of races.”
Princeton Day School finished 14th led by Nicholas Chen in 80th place and Kevin Sun in 81st.
”Kevin Sun and Nick Chen both ran really well,” PDS coach Merrell Noden said. “I am hoping we can pull it together for the prep states. It is our last meet of the season. The kids have been training for today and Wednesday and if we run smart races on Wednesday I think we can end our season on a pleasing note.”
