Campbell’s surprising finish keys Panther depth
By: Justin Feil
The Princeton Day School boys’ cross country team has been in the hunt at the Prep Championship the past two years. But one thing or another always seemed to prevent the Panthers from claiming a title. Wednesday, things finally went right.
PDS used newfound depth to win its first prep title since 1992, but ever so narrowly. When the places of the top five finishers from PDS and second-place Gill-St. Bernards were tabulated, the score was even, 54-54. It was up to the teams’ sixth-place finisher, and the Panthers’ Jason Carey was ahead of Gill’s No. 6 finisher to give the Panthers the win.
But it was PDS’ first five runners that put them in position for the tiebreaker. Had any of them faltered, Gill would have won.
Bill Caulin made up two places in the final 150 yards to finish second overall. Stephen Dool and John Schorling ran solid races, per usual. PDS’ fourth runner, freshman Jon Haddad, continued his steady improvement. What, or who was the Panthers’ fifth finisher, however, came as a surprise. Chris Campbell took the honors in his second race ever.
"Last week, he had done over 22 minutes at the Battlefield," said PDS head coach Eamon Downey. "Chris came up huge this race. He ran 19:54 and moved into our fifth man position. Howard (Kline) and Jason had off days, even though they ended up saving us. That was a surprise for us.
"Bill has not shown a great finish. If he stays in fourth, we do not win. If Chris had not come up the way he did, Jason would have been fifth."
Campbell didn’t know the pain of the previous two years, when PDS lost by two and 10 points, respectively. This year is the junior’s first year on the team, and Wednesday’s race just the second of his career.
"The reason I joined cross country is I wanted to get in shape," said the New Hope resident. "One of my goals is to get into the U.S. Air Force Academy. I knew that cross country was a great way to prepare for that. So far, it’s been a great experience."
After missing one meet due to illness, Campbell admittedly went out too fast in his first high school cross country race only to pay late in that race. Wednesday, he was focused more on sticking with his teammates and pacing himself evenly. It turned into a new personal best, and more importantly, a championship for PDS.
"I didn’t even know I could break 20 (minutes)," Campbell said. "Our five, six and seven ran together. I managed to pull ahead. Our goal is to run together. We have good top runners. What we’ve really been working on is depth."
The addition of Campbell helped make up for two injured Panther runners that Downey had been counting on Andrew Gentile and Nick Perold. Their loss made it look like this year’s Prep Championship would turn out like the last two had.
"We’ve had incredibly close meets even though we haven’t won it," Downey said. "We didn’t get the performances of the fifth and sixth last year. Gill has also had depth problems. At the Newark Invitational (this season), we beat them and had six in front of their fifth. At Rutgers Prep, we did it again, but lost by a point.
"From my perspective, we could have been a deeper team this year. But we’re still a deeper team than Gill. What’s helping us is Jon Haddad is improving every week and Chris Campbell is so new that he’ll keep improving too."
Having broken 20 minutes, Campbell is planning on focusing his energy to continue to lower his time and get himself into even better shape.
"I really am still learning," he said. "In the first race, I didn’t know what I was doing. I went our too fast and was real tired and got a bad time. I had a better idea of what to do. Hopefully, I can be a bit better.
"The main factor in coming out was the Air Force Academy. There’s just something about the idea of being able to run fast that has always been a goal of mine."
Wednesday, he reached that goal in a championship-winning performance, and it’s only the beginning for PDS’ surprising fifth runner.