Pirates top runner makes difference
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
TITUSVILLE — Caroline Kellner and the West Windsor-Plainsboro South girls cross country team returned to the top of the county.
At Washington Crossing State Park on Friday, Kellner blazed to her second straight Mercer County Championship in a personal best for 5 kilometers. The Pirates, after finishing fourth last year, edged Robbinsville, 63-67, for their second team title in three years.
”It’s really exciting this year,” said Kellner, who won in 17:56. “I think I had a better race. There was no mud, so that was good.”
Kellner’s win made a big difference for the Pirates for the team win. The Pirates and Robbinsville were equal in their second through fifth scoring runners, both adding exactly to 62. Kellner’s win broke the tie by four points.
”She came out and knew this was her race the whole way,” said Pirates head coach Josh Siegel. “The confidence was there and her strength was there. She just hammered it. I’m proud of her.”
Following Kellner were Ingrid Simon in seventh, May Chang in 11th and Nicole Crossey in 13th. Xinran Pan was 31st. Shelby Miller and Lisa Sher also ran for the Pirates, who were unbeaten through the regular dual meet season as well.
”I definitely think they knew their potential,” Siegel said. “It’s that nail in the coffin to be Mercer County champs.
”It’s a big confidence booster,” he added. “We’re coming in knowing that we’ve worked hard and we proved it. It’s only going to allow us to get better.”
Princeton High School finished third for the second straight year. Jenna Cody, healthy for the race this year, finished fourth overall in 19:08. Chrissy Glover was also in the top 10 after her second straight strong finish at counties.
”I think it’s the first really big meet,” Glover explained. “This is kind of cheesy, but it gets me into the spirit of championship season, which is my favorite part of the year. And it’s my favorite course too, so that really helps. It was our home course last year, so we learned to love it.”
Glover has developed into a consistently high finisher for the Little Tigers. She is coming on strong to cap her scholastic career.
”I’ve improved a lot this season, and especially my last race I got my PR and broke 20 minutes,” Glover said. “That really gave me a lot of confidence to see what I could do here.
”I felt great today. I think I ran in the really low 20s. It felt like I was going really fast, but it wasn’t super hard. It felt good.”
WW-P North was fifth, just five points behind fourth-place Hopewell Valley. Manolya Altan led the Knights in 12th place. Bryn Gorberg finished in 16th place.
”They ran really well,” said Knights head coach Bill Mealy. “We were kind of hoping to knock off someone that beat us earlier in the year, and we came within five points of Hopewell so I’m really proud of the way the girls ran. Maybe all but two of all the girls ran personal bests today. You can’t ask for much more.
”I think today gave some of the younger girls some confidence,” he added. “They ran well and did OK, so they’ll be ready to go when we get to sectionals.”
Princeton Day School, led by the 40th-place finish of Alice Shockey, was 11th in the team standings. They will compete at Blair 2 p.m. Wednesday in the Prep B state meet. The public school teams will run Saturday in their sectional meets.
”Hopefully we all get healthy and we get better,” the Pirates’ Siegel said. “This is what we train for — these last couple weeks.”
Kellner, who was fourth at the Meet of Champions last year, is looking forward to the final races in her junior cross country campaign.
”I feel really confident,” Kellner said. “I’ve been training really hard so my races haven’t been up to par yet. My coaches have been starting to back off a little bit, so hopefully I’ll start to run a little better.”
Running a personal record at Washington Crossing was a good start going into the final three weeks of the New Jersey racing season.
”I’m ecstatic,” Kellner said. “I’ve never broken 18 before on any course. I don’t necessarily consider this the easiest course either.”
Her second win in a row sets her up for what has become a rare feat in Mercer history. PHS graduate Karin Swartz is the last female to win three straight crowns, from 1986 to 1988. Kellner will have the chance to duplicate that accomplishment next year.
”That’s definitely a really big goal,” she said. “That would be really exciting.”
For now, she’s enjoying her second straight win, and this one was different in that it played a big role in helping the Pirates to claim the team championship as well.
”All in all, I’m proud of what we accomplished,” Siegel said. “Robbinsville is an incredible group of young ladies, and Princeton as well, but our girls persevered.”