Knight distance relays finish second in 4×800 and 4×1600
By: Justin Feil
When Liz Dugan was at the West Windsor-Plainsboro Community Middle School, she didn’t have a lot of competition. All of that has changed in her first year of high school track, and she couldn’t be happier.
"In middle school," she said, "I had no one to run with. I’d run the 800 and 1600. There was basically no competition.
"I enjoy having the competition now. It’s so much better to have people to push you. When I’m feeling lethargic or tired, everyone’s there to push me."
The West Windsor-Plainsboro High North junior has been away from track due to medical problems for the past two seasons. Cleared to participate this year, Dugan jumped at the chance to get on the team and has gotten off to a strong start.
Wednesday, she was the top Knight girl in the 800 meters and also ran in the 4×400. Saturday, she was a member of the girls’ 4×800 and 4×1600 relays that each finished second to Hopewell Valley at the Mercer County Relays. The Hun girls’ discus team of Jamie Greubel and Kate Head also finished second and the Montgomery High girls’ shuttle team finished second at the Skyland Relays, but the Knights’ two second-place finishes were tops among Packet-area teams for overall performances.
"We were pretty happy," Dugan said. "We have a pretty spread out team. We have a freshman and a couple sophomores and a couple juniors. We were pretty happy with our finish. Going into it, we thought we had a strong team. But we knew that Hopewell was good.
"It was good to have that first meet already. If the relays had been our first meet, I would have been really nervous. I wasn’t sure how I’d match up when I came out. But with that first meet, I was more confident."
Dugan was the third leg in the 4×800 that also included sophomores Gretchen Keiling and JaJa Saquing and fellow junior Vanessa Gibens. In the 4×800, Dugan was joined by freshman Rebecca Pierson, sophomore Sara McGuigan and Gibens. Dugan was happiest with her 5:42 mile split in the 4×1600.
"That’s the first time I broke six minutes," she said. "My previous best for a timed mile on a track was 6:22 in middle school. I was a little surprised by my time, but I was happy with it. The thing I was happiest about was going into my leg, we were in fifth or sixth and by the time I passed it off, we were in second."
Dugan’s sub-6:00 mile was a pleasant surprise to North head coach Paul Glass, who has seen strong development from his newest additions.
"She wasn’t with us off the bat," he said of Dugan. "She was still getting cleared to come out. Usually in the beginning of the year, we’ll do some general conditioning before we get into specific workouts. We had done a week like this when she was cleared to come out. She comes out the second week and right off the bat, she’s trying to keep up with Sara and Vanessa. It was great to see."
Pierson is also new to the track team. Glass convinced the freshman to give track a shot after watching how well Pierson was able to keep up with McGuigan in field hockey practice. Strong additions have WW-PN in position to challenge most teams.
"I nervously saw that we can just about have someone in every event that can get points. We just need some more throwers. We’re not really healthy right now, but we hung with those teams (Wednesday)," said Glass, whose team defeated Hamilton and Nottingham and lost to Notre Dame. "I think we should be able to do well against Hightstown, Princeton and (WW-P) High School South. I think we can contend.
"We hung with some good teams. I think we can’t touch Hopewell Valley and we can’t touch Trenton. But it appears that we can compete with about anyone else."
Dugan is thrilled to be part of a team that will compete against the Colonial Valley Conference’s top teams, and also give her plenty of competition at practice.
"I love it," the 17-year-old said. "I love the camaraderie on the team, everyone pulling for each other. I feel like I’m pretty good. I want to see how much faster I can get, how good I can get. I love being with the distance people. They work so hard in practice. It’s fun to push each other."
Dugan has had such positive early returns that she is thinking seriously about Glass and assistant coach Bill Mealy’s suggestion that she give cross country a try this fall. It would be another chance for Dugan to show her ability and give her another chance at the competition that she craved so much in middle school and is only now starting to see in her first year of high school track and field.