By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
The Princeton High boys cross country team has been checking off its goals week by week.
Mercer County title. Check.
Central Jersey Group 4 sectional championship. Check.
Group 4 state champions. Check.
And now the Little Tigers are able to check off the biggest goal yet, winning the Meet of Champions o Saturday at Holmdel Park. Princeton put three runners in the top 24 and used its depth to pull out a narrow win over Colts Neck and Christian Brothers Academy, the five-time defending MOC champion.
Princeton finished with 104 points, while Colts Neck finished with 106 points and CBA finished with 109 points. The Little Tigers are the first Mercer County team to win a title at the MOC since West Windsor-Plainsboro North in 2008. The Montgomery boys finished 12th as a team, led by the 16th-place finish of Ajay Sarathy, who finished in 16:19.
In the girls meet, Chloe Taylor of Princeton finished 54th in 20:16, while West Windsor-Plainsboro South’s Kelsey Kobus finished 82nd in 20:46.
Alex Roth led Princeton with a third-place individual finish in 15:54. Will Hare finished 10th in 16:12, Acascio Pinheiro was 24th in 16:30, Alex Ackerman finished 48th in 16:45, and Cy Watsky was 86th in 17:15. Jackson Donahue and Nick Delaney rounded out the race for the Little Tigers.
“It was really exciting,” said Ackerman, who ran 17 seconds faster than he had a week earlier in the Group IV state meet at Holmdel. “I knew after it finished it would be really close. Just to beat CBA and Colts Neck, which are two really great teams, is quite an accomplishment. When we finished I knew it was close but wasn’t sure if we had won or not.
“I think our coaches helped us peak at this point. All along, Coach (Jim) Smirk wanted our best races to hopefully be here at the Meet of Champs and also at regionals. I think he prepared us well to run this race at our best. We all knew what we needed to do.”
Princeton has used the same winning formula in each championship race. Roth, Hare and Pinheiro have been lights out as the top three, with the combination of Ackerman, Watsky, Donahue and Delaney being solid in the fourth through seventh slots.
“A big part of the team is our core runners,” Watsky said. “Our top three are always up there competing. Our four through seven runners, we are all equally talented and have the opportunity to take risks each week.
“Going into the race I knew we matched up evenly with Colts Neck and CBA. We knew we were in the mix and could get the win. The race went out slowly and I wasn’t sure coming across the line where we were as far as if we had won.”
At the Group IV meet a week earlier, it was Donahue that finished as the fourth runner with Ackerman fifth. At the sectional meet, Delaney was the Little Tigers’ fourth runner with Ackerman fifth. Each week different runners would rise to the occasion behind the top three.
“We knew we wanted to have our back pack be around 16:40, except we knew that could change,” Ackerman said. “The week before at Groups was a slower race, so knew we couldn’t have a time goal because the pace at the front of the race could change week to week. We focused on picking off runners and executing our race plan.”
And the Little Tigers did that to perfection to earn the MOC title they had been planning for since the summer.
“We had Alex Roth finish third, which was crazy,” Watsky said. “Acascio leaned to beat a guy at the end. Everyone was beating the guys they needed to beat. It all fell into place.
“The discussion coming out of spring track was to look toward this point in time and train with the Meet of Champs and regionals as our main focus. We wanted to get all the work done and work out any problems by the time we got to the championship meets. Everything fell into place. A big part of it has been our new coaching staff with some extra coaches and special coaches to keep us healthy and focused.”
Princeton stayed healthy and focused and all seven runners did their part in making the Little Tigers the best team in New Jersey.
“We talk about it all the time,” Ackerman said. “Our back four pack of me, Nick, Cy and Jackson, we all know what we are capable of in races. It makes it a lot easier to be able to take risks knowing of the four of us we can depend on each other and take those risks and be all right. Last week Jackson was fourth and ran great. It’s nice to know it can be any one of us any race.
“Coach Smirk talked about it where we are all able to take risks during the race because we are all so confident in each other, especially at this point of the season. At some points in a race it is tough to keep going. But we know our teammates and coaches have worked hard all season and we had to push through. It was a real team effort. Personally and I think the whole team, we’re just thinking how we can help the team win and not just how can we run a PR.”
The process was a long and steady one for the Little Tigers, but one that worked out just as they had it planned.
“The first half of the season we were still going through training and getting Acascio ready to race,” Watsky said. “We had some solid times. But when we got to the county meet and championship season we wanted to make a statement. I thought we did that in the county and then in sectionals with setting a course record. We got to groups and wanted a fast time. We knew at Meet of Champs we were an underdog, but we had a lot of success and knew we had what it took. We knew what we had to do and one through seven we all 1-7 put it out there.”
This weekend Princeton will compete in the Nike Northeast Regionals at Bowdoin Park in Wapingers Falls, N.Y. The meet includes runners from eight states and the top two teams will advance to the Nike National meet in Portland, Ore.
Getting to nationals would be a great way for Watsky to end a Princeton High cross country career that has seen him emerge as a leader and a champion.
“I know I have trained with a lot of the kids and lot of the younger runners,” Watsky said. “I have trained with them and offered guidance. My role as a captain is not just to be a runner. It is to make sure everyone has their races figured out and to be fit and be there if there is anything a coach or runner needs. I have learned a lot.”
Including how to win. And Princeton just came away with the biggest win of them all.
