By Bob Nuse and Justin Feil, Staff Writer
The 2014 calendar year brought with it more success for the athletes and coaches in the Princeton Packet coverage area.
There was success at the individual level and team level, reaching as far as the Winter Olympic Games, where local athletes made their presence felt.
Here is a countdown of the Top 10 sports stories for 2014.
10. A long time coming: The Hun School girls soccer program had certainly dealt with its share of frustration at the hands of the Pennington School over the last several years. In a span of 16 years the Raiders had a 22-game winless streak going against the perennial state Prep A champions. But this year would be different.
Hun served notice it would be a team to deal with on the pitch early in the season when it handed the Red Raiders a 2-0 defeat in the regular season. And when the two teams met again in the Prep A final, Hun put a final stamp of approval on its season with a 2-0 win to earn its first title since 1990.
9. Clearing another hurdle: Having already established herself as the top indoor hurdler in the state a year earlier with a win at the Meet of Champions, West Windsor-Plainsboro High North’s Pati Dziekonska proved it was no fluke when she repeated as MOC indoor champion in the 55-meter hurdles. Dziekonska had finished second in the Group III meet in 8.07 second a week earlier, earning her a No. 2 seed for the event at the MOC. She had won the event at the 2013 MOC in 8.07 and came back in 2014 to run 7.99 seconds and win her second straight indoor crown. In addition to her win at the MOC, Dziekonska won three events at the Mercer County Indoor Championships. She set a meet record in winning the 55-meter hurdles in 7.42 seconds, while also finishing first in the long jump and helping her WW-P North 4×400 relay to a win in a meet record time as well.
8. Under the wire: Princeton University was in danger of seeing a 42-year streak come to an end. Beginning in 1972, the Tigers had a team or individual NCAA champion every academic year through 2013. In 2014, keeping the streak alive came down to the final PU athlete competing and Julia Ratcliffe came through.
The sophomore won the women’s hammer throw at the NCAA track and field championships with a toss of 66.88 meters, claiming the program’s first national championship in the process.
7. Dream maker: Plainsboro resident Felicia Zhang realized a lifelong dream when she and her pairs skating partner Nathan Bartholomay qualified for a berth in the Winter Olympic. In Sochi, Russia the two finished 12th in the pair competition. The pair skated to “Carousel Waltz” by Rogers and Hammerstein for their short program and music from “Les Miserables” for the free skate.
Zhang, a 2011 West Windsor-Plainsboro High South graduate, and Bartholomay are two-time U.S. pairs medalists and most recently won silver at the 2014 U.S. Championships in Boston.
6. New girl in town: For 20 years Gary Walters was the face of the Princeton University athletic department. But when Walters announced he would be retiring following the 2013-2014 academic year, the school called on one of its own to be the new leader of the program.
Mollie Marcoux, a 1991 Princeton graduate, stepped in as the school’s new Director of Athletics and helped to make the transition from Walters a smooth one. While at Princeton, Marcoux was a member of the women’s soccer and women’s ice hockey programs, where she earned several accolades. As a senior, she was awarded the C. Otto von Kienbusch Sportswoman of the Year Award for “high scholastic rank, sportsmanship and general excellence in athletics.”
Now in her new role as the leader of the athletic department, Marcoux will look to continue the school’s tradition of athletic and academic success.
5. Crowning achievement: Princeton High senior Michele Bazile had some impressive achievements during her final year of track and field for the Little Tigers. But she saved her best for last. For the third year in a row, she won the shot put title at the Mercer County Championships. Bazile also repeated as discus champion. She swept both events at the Central Jersey Group III meet as well. The next week, she won the shot put at the Group III championship and placed third in the discus to advance to the Meet of Champions in both.
But it was at the Meet of Champions that Bazile had her career crowning performance as she became just the second female state champion from PHS when she threw a new school-record 43-feet-6¼ to win the girls shot put.
4. Double the excitement: Emily Roeper and Kim Szakats finally got the opportunity to play doubles together for the Montgomery High girls tennis team and they assembled quite a resume in their only season together on the court. Roeper, a junior, was in her third year at first doubles, while Szakats, a senior, moved up from playing second doubles last year to join her this season.
Roeper and Szakats didn’t take long to show they were a perfect match. They won their flight at the Somerset County Tournament. Their undefeated regular season earned them the No. 2 seed for the state doubles tournament, and the Cougars marched to the finals where they won in straight sets over Montville. They wrapped up a 25-0 season in which they never even lost one set while becoming just the second Montgomery High state champions.
3. Below par is good: When Alice Chen burst onto the high school girls golf scene as a freshman, she quickly established herself as one of the state’s top players. As a senior she went out the same way she came in. Chen saved her best for last as she put together an incredible final season at Montgomery High.
During her season to remember, Chen won a fourth straight Somerset County Tournament title, a third straight Skyland Conference title, a second Red Devil Invitational title, and captured the Tournament of Champions title with a record 7-under par 65. Chen helped lift the Montgomery girls program to a level as one of the best in New Jersey. The Cougars finished second to Ridge at the TOC. It was at that tournament that Chen, now a freshman at Furman University, played her finest high school round, shooting a career-best 7-under on the Cherry Valley Country Club course.
2. Bronze looks just right: All of Jamie Greubel’s hard work, dedication and development paid off in her first trip to the Olympics. And once the Hun School graduate got to Sochi, Russi, she wasn’t content just to be there. Greubel paired with Aja Evans to win the bronze medal in the women’s two-man bobsled competition.
Greubel, who was the No. 2 ranked driver in the world coming into the Olympics, performed better than all but two other pairs in the world in Sochi. She and Evans got off to a fast start with a promising 57.45-second run in their first run at Sochi. Greubel’s second run finished in 58.0 seconds, which put them in third place after the first day of the two-day competition. They were .56 seconds out of the gold medal, and .32 seconds behind the second-place team from Canada. On the second day of competition, Greubel, in her Olympic debut, had another 58.0-second run and then finished with a 58.16 clocking to secure the bronze medal.
1. Perfect on the mat: After three years of falling short of the ultimate goal and a spot in the Tournament of Champions, Montgomery High’s Anthony Cassar made the most of his first trip to Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall. Cassar had jumped each season, from 13 wins as a freshman to 23 as a sophomore to a 34-4 record as a junior, finishing fourth in Region 5 and just missing out on a berth in the state finals.
As a senior, Cassar won the Somerset County Tournament title, the District 18 championship, and became the first MHS wrestler in their eight-year history to win a Region 5 title. At the TOC, he knocked off the top seed at 195 pounds, rallied from a near-loss to win in the final five seconds, and won once more to set up a final with Franklin’s Ralph Normandia, whom he defeated for a fourth time to become the first state champion in Montgomery history and finish his season 43-0.
