South boys are best MOC duo
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Nikhil Pulimood and Tim Bason both made huge jumps to lead the West Windsor-Plainsboro High South boys cross country team to sixth at the Meet of Champions on Saturday at Holmdel Park.
Pulimood moved up 40 spots from a year ago to place second, just two seconds behind Haddon Township’s Luke Petela. Bason jumped from 83rd last year to ninth this year. No other team at the MOC had two runners place as highly.
”I think I’ve thought for a while that I had it in me to do really well,” said Pulimood who ran 15:42. “I just had to do it.
”I was pretty confident in my chances for (Saturday),” he added. “It was about continuing to train through this season. I knew it would take a lot of tough workouts and a lot of miles, but I thought it was a possibility.”
The Pirates senior led most of the race with Craig Corti of Wallkill Valley, the top returning runner from a year ago’s MOC. They came out of the woods in view of the finish line only to see Petela and Bishop Eustace’s Shawn Hutchinson overtake them in a well-timed move.
”I was completely surprised,” Pulimood said. “They got this really big lead on me on that end. I was able to catch one of them, but the other kid got away.
”I can’t be too upset,” he added. “Honestly, I’m pretty excited for next week.”
Pulimood is hoping to build off his MOC race at the Nike Northeast Regionals on Saturday. He is looking at regionals as another chance to compete at an even higher level, and that challenge motivates him to try even harder.
”At the end of the race, I still had stuff in me,” Pulimood said. “I think I just need to learn how to put everything into a race.
”I’m really excited for next week because there will be a lot of fast kids,” he added. “I’m not going to have to lead the race. It’s what I had to do with Corti this week and every week. I’m excited to see how that plays out because I’ll have other people doing the work for me.”
Pulimood felt like he could have extended his MOC lead sooner and not given anyone a chance of catching him, and he regretted relaxing right at a point that left him vulnerable.
”It’s really about confidence,” he said. “I didn’t have enough confidence in myself to finish the race when I could have, which would have been earlier on. I was kind of too confident at the end. Anything can be thrown at you. I wasn’t really ready for that. That was a huge lesson that I have to learn.”
Pulimood still had enough energy at the end to overtake Hutchinson, and he might have caught Petela if he had a little more course.
”If it was another 50 meters, you never know,” said Pirates head coach Kurt Wayton. “Nikhil was coming back on them tough. It was amazing.”
Pulimood had made a serious bid at becoming the second Pirates champion. Brian Leung won in 2007. He’ll pass those expectations to Bason, who will be coming back after a more encouraging finish as a junior than Pulimood had.
”It feels amazing,” said Bason, who ran 16:00. “It’s really great to know all the hard work you put in training really pays off in the end.
”Going into the race, I was just hoping to get top 20. I didn’t look at any other runners (in on-line rankings) going into it. I just assumed if I worked hard enough and stayed on the pack, I’d achieve what I wanted to.”
Bason’s finish reassured that he had done just about all he could. He was passed over the final stretch by a pair of runners — both seniors — or he could have finished even closer to Pulimood.
”Nikhil is a great leader,” Bason said. “He really helps put the team together and he’s a great person to train with. He’s always pushing us and always telling us we can do better and encouraging us to do our best.”
Bason saved one of his best races for the MOC. He did even better than he had hoped to stay in line with his coach’s expectations.
”It’s something we’ve seen,” Wayton said. “Tim is very talented. He’s constantly improved. He has faith in himself and he’s extremely, extremely coachable. He’s one of the few guys that can take aside and tell him exactly what to do and it’s not going or rattle him. He’ll go out and do it. At the end of the day, that’s crucial. Hopefully a coach knows what he’s doing, and Tim follows through almost every time. He’s a joy to coach. He’s a fantastic kid.”
He was the second junior finisher in the race, and it sets him up with the potential to be a contender for the individual crown next year.
”I know my sophomore year was the first year running MOCs, and I didn’t know what to expect,” Bason said. “I got (83rd). Here, I wanted to go out a little faster and I got ninth. Next year will be amazing. It’ll be really, really interesting to see what happens.
”Last year I didn’t know what to expect. I just went into the race and saw a lot of people in front of me.”
Bason came back with higher expectations this year and more confidence in himself, and he put together a fine effort to close what’s been a big breakout season at the state level.
”I feel really accomplished with what I did this year,” Bason said. “I feel like I raced to my best and I did my best, but I can still move on for next year.”
The Pirate leaders were part of a strong team effort. Sam William was 62nd, Zach Crossey was 91st and Zabih Kotecha took 119th to close the scoring. Harish Venkatraman was 144th and Tom Moxham was 149th.
The Pirates were sixth with 192 points, just six points out of fifth place and nine points out of fourth. They averaged 16:36 per runner. Christian Brothers Academy won with 82 points.
”I don’t think MOCs was my best showing, but on a team level, it’s pretty cool what we did,” Pulimood said. “We were ranked 18th at one point in the season. We might have been unranked at one point. To get sixth and medal and continue this steak of medaling at MOCs at the team level, with all the struggles we had this season, it’s gratifying.
”Personally I thought we were going to be up there. To have that belief come true is pretty cool. I don’t think there were any teams that thought we’d do that well. We beat Don Bosco, and they almost beat CBA last week. Voorhees, they’re another really good team (that WW-P South defeated). We were nine points behind fourth place.”
Happy as he was about the team finish, he was not surprised. He had confidence in the training that they had been doing, the training that put him in position to contend for the individual championship.
”It’s sort of easier for me because I have Coach Wayton, who gives you every lesson you want to learn and all the training you could need,” Pulimood said. “It’s really up to you. I kind of knew if I did all that Wayton has, I could give back to him by doing what I can. It’s been a great experience the last three years. It’s not over yet. It’s coming to a close. High school cross country is an amazing experience. I’m really going to miss it.”
Pulimood will look to extend his season at the regionals this Saturday. The top two teams advance to nationals along with the top 10 individuals, and the Pirates are hoping at the least they can advance Pulimood and Bason.
”I think they have very good chances,” Wayton said. “They just have to go out there and do the same thing they’ve been doing. They don’t have to be any better. Kids get in these races and think they have to do that much better. All you have to do is have the same solid race and it’ll happen or it won’t. They’re ready. We always train for this part of the season. I have 100 percent confidence they are physically and mentally ready to go. We just have to see how things shake out.”