By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
You certainly could not blame any of the members of the West Windsor-Plainsboro High South girls track and field team if they couldn’t recall the last time the team lost a dual meet., After all, most members of Pirates hadn’t even started kindergarten yet when South dropped a two-point decision to WW-P North in 2005., The Pirates ran their dual meet win streak to 100 in a row when they topped the Knights, 100-40, in a meet on April 4. The streak reached 102 with wins over Ewing and Nottingham on Wednesday., “We had a couple of nail-biters and one really close call where it came down to the 4×4 relay against Notre Dame in 2014,” WW-P South coach Todd Smith recalled. “We’ve had a great coaching staff over those years. We’ve had a lot of different coaches, but they’ve consistently been coaches who relate to the kids. They’re knowledgable about their events. It also shows the great depth that we have as well as a little luck. It’s been awesome. Every year there seems to be the next great runner. We’ve had a run of those kids.”, None of the members of this year’s team could possibly remember that loss to North in 2005. But at the same time, no one wants to be part of the team that sees the win streak finally come to an end., “I think it really means a lot, especially coming from this program,” senior Kelsey Kobus said. “When we first came into this program, we knew about all the past successes. And without having some of our key members like Christina (Rancan) and Kathryn (Scheonauer), to be able to continue the win streak means a lot for the whole team and our coaches., “Coming into this meet we knew North was a good team. They have a lot of good girls so we were extra motivated. Our coaches said we had to make sure that we keep it. We didn’t want to be the team that loses at 99.”, The Pirates don’t have the same kind of star power they have had over the years, but this year’s team is deep and talented. The seniors came into the program knowing it had been quite some time since the team’s last loss and they are happy to be part of the group that helped get the program to 100 straight wins., “When I got here we were around 70, so we knew we were getting close,” senior Vivian Liao said. “We knew we would get there eventually. I feel like in the past we’ve always had some superstar runners like Deirdre (Casey), Kathryn, Christina and Edwyna (Gulama). They’ve always kind of carried us. This year I don’t think we have that as much, so it was kind of scary to go into the meet without some of those people.”, While the coaches and athletes may not have talked about the streak every day, they have always been aware that is was there. In fact, it is something the newcomers to the program quickly learn about., “I think it was on either the first or second day of track, Coach Smith said we’re an undefeated team and I’d like to keep that going,” junior Brianna Hodges said. “He said ‘I know it is a lot of pressure but I know you can do it.’ That’s really cool because this is the first team I’ve been on that’s been successful., “I think the stakes of this meet were a little bit higher because there was more incentive to beat them.”
