Pirates’ Miller, Cougars’ Nystrom also qualify
By: Justin Feil
The state Group cross country meet on Saturday was held under conditions better suited for a tractor pull than a high-level venue. Rain and mud kept even some of the elite runners and top teams spinning their wheels, but Caroline Sholl and the Princeton High girls’ cross country team actually sped up Saturday.
Despite running in the Group III race, the eighth race of the day held at Holmdel, after hundreds of other boys and girls had already trampled down the 5k course and made the start and finish areas slippery enough that race officials had difficulty walking across them, the Little Tigers finished fifth in Group III and grabbed the second of two team wild card spots for the Meet of Champions to be held this Saturday by improving their overall time by an average of six seconds per runner.
Princeton’s top runners, Dilshanie Perera and Meaghan Lynch, were just a hair off their sectional finish times of a week ago in coming in ninth and 13th respectively Saturday, but the Little Tigers’ third through fifth-place runners all improved their times. Eleanora Spinazzi was 29th overall in 20:48, Sholl was 43rd overall and Lucy Cohen was 86th in 22:07.
"We were really psyched to get in," said Sholl who had the second greatest week-to-week improvement of any PHS runner when she dropped from 21:23 to 21:06 Saturday. "It’s been a long time since our school made the Meet of Champions."
Fifteen years, in fact, since a Little Tiger team reached the apex of New Jersey running. Lisa Miller also became the first West Windsor-Plainsboro High South girls’ runner to reach that level when the sophomore received an individual wild card entry with her finish time of 20:15, good for 14th in Group III.
"The conditions were horrible, but she made the best of it," said WW-PS head coach Todd Smith. "She knows she ran a tough race. I think she feels she can do a little better next week. She’s looking forward to it. Group III was one of the faster races of the day. She just got out there and raced. I’m happy with her time and glad she got a wild card."
Also qualifying individually for the Meet of Champions by virtue of a top 10 finish was Christine Nystrom of Montgomery High, who was ninth in Group II.
"I’m overjoyed," said MHS head coach Jim Goodfriend. "She’s accomplished everything we wanted her to. Christine ran fast considering the conditions. Hopefully she’ll be in the top 45 next week. The girls reached their goal of Groups. I’m overjoyed about all of it."
The Cougars were eighth as a team. West Windsor-Plainsboro North’s Vanessa Gibens was 25th in the Group III race. Mike Huse led the PHS boys to a 14th place finish.
But it was the PHS girls that put together the best group performance from top to bottom. They did so the same way they managed to put together a one-loss dual-meet season, second-place Mercer County Championship finish and second-place Central Jersey Group II finish the week before.
"It’s just a lot of belief in themselves," said PHS head coach Andre Bridgett. "They believed in the training we’ve been doing all year. They had confidence that they could meet any adversity head on."
Their first challenge Saturday was the weather, and a close second was the competition that included by far the best Group in the state.
"Conditions were terrible, but we had practiced in those conditions, in rain and in mud," Sholl said. "It wasn’t that hard for us, it wasn’t that big of a challenge. We knew if we wanted to move on, we had to be positive about the whole thing."
About the only negative was that PHS lost its team tent, which was a casualty of the windy, rainy weather. The PHS team appeared to pay no mind to that as they did mudslides in the parking lot in their uniforms. They were at home in such conditions.
"They even requested we go outside Tuesday, the first day it rained this week," Bridgett said. "It was a little messy out, and I was fine with staying inside. But four of the seven asked if they could get out. I had mentioned that it might rain Saturday and they said that they wanted to get out there in case it did."
The competition ultimately proved tougher. While PHS improved, so did Middletown South, North Hunterdon and Montville, the top three Group III finishers. Fourth-place finisher Moorestown, the other at-large Meet of Champions entrant, was nearly a minute off its per runner sectional time.
"I couldn’t have asked for much more," Bridgett said. "I was elated by their performance. We ran faster than the week before and some teams still beat us. North Hunterdon improved a lot. I knew that Montville, Moorestown and Middletown South would be tough. Montville had two runners ahead of Dilshanie. I thought we got out slower than we did the week before, but we did a good job in the second half of the course. It was just hard for them to pass people."
Sholl nearly lost out to everyone when she stumbled off the starting line. She slipped before catching her footing and running one of her best races of the season. Her finish time was nearly two minutes faster than it was last year when she was the Little Tigers’ third finisher as a freshman.
"Having the experience was definitely helpful," Sholl said. "Also running in the Shore Coaches (Invitational), it wasn’t as serious a race, but it was good experience to run with so many girls."
Next week, the Little Tigers will be running with only the top teams in the state at the Meet of Champions. And they’re ready though only Perera, who was 34th in last year’s Meet of Champions, has any previous experience at that level.
"We’re all kind of nervous," Sholl said. "We know we can do well. It’s kind of hard to believe we’re that good. Going into the beginning of the year, Coach was like, ‘You’re going to be state champs.’ It’s kind of a possibility now. But there are so many other good teams. We have so much competition.
"I can definitely (run faster)," she added. "I thought I had an incredible meet at sectionals, and it turns out I ran faster (Saturday). I was able to see Eleanora at the end, so I’m going to try to run with her. I wanted to break 21 (minutes) this meet, but conditions weren’t good for that."
Her drastic improvement comes as no surprise to Bridgett. She came into the season running a minute faster than her previous best. It was apparent from the outset that she had done the work to improve, even though she was the last PHS runner to report back to the team after vacationing in Maine.
"She e-mailed me over the summer when she was in Maine," Bridgett said. "She told me that she was running and she asked for a workout. With that attitude, she was destined for success. For her to write and ask for a workout told me she was serious about this upcoming year.
"I only expect her to continue to get better. Her work ethic is unbelievable. She’s a great kid to have on the team. They all bring something unique. She’s a young lady who’s very funny. She never complains about a workout and she encourages everyone to do their share. She’ll even take the lead in some workouts to get them done. Her personality is unbelievable."
It matches the common feeling among the Little Tigers that they’re on the verge of an unbelievable accomplishment. And Bridgett is looking for his PHS girls’ team to do as it has all season in working hard to improve its finish time and move into contention at the Meet of Champions.
"We have to be in the race from the beginning," he said. "Toms River East and Shawnee stand out, but it’s anyone’s after that. I like the way we’ve closed the gap between ourselves and (Group II champion) Hopewell. I’d love the opportunity to outperform them.
"We fall somewhere between seven and 10 coming in and teams one through six get awards. Our goal is to be a top five team. I definitely want to improve as a team. We want to improve where we’re coming in."
PHS already proved it can do so, even in the worst of conditions, as it did Saturday in advancing to the Meet of Champions.