Jackson leads way in WW-P North home course debut
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Kian Jackson is following in the tradition of many West Windsor-Plainsboro High North cross country runners before him.
”We seem to have a tradition here every year where a senior who has a lot of talent puts it all together and has a tremendous senior season,” WW-P North coach Brian Gould said. “He has had some really nice track seasons. He has always been an above average cross country guy for us.
”We have a couple other seniors guys doing that this year — Justin Bauter and Ian Cunningham. Those guys are greatly improved so far. And we have other seniors who have contributed consistently for us over the years. But those three guys have really stepped up.”
Jackson was the top finisher for the Knights on Tuesday as they topped Hopewell Valley and Hightstown while falling to Robbinsville in a meet held on their home course at North. It was the first time the school has hosted a CVC meet on its course and the event went over very well.
”It was a lot of work to set it up but it was worth it,” Gould said. “It has been a long time since I have seen this many people at a meet like this. These kids don’t get the opportunity to get big crowds out like this to see them. It’s a cool experience to see people come out and watch how hard they work and how much pride they take in their team.”
Jackson went out quickly in a meet that featured six teams and 132 runners. He was stride for stride with the Robbinsville duo of Zach Michon and Richie Casper before the pair pulled away in the final mile. But Jackson held on for third in 15:57 over the course.
”I tried to go out with them but the last mile I guess I didn’t push myself hard enough,” Jackson said. “At the end I heard the people on the sidelines cheering for the people right behind me so I picked it up so they wouldn’t get ahead of me.
”I just try to keep improving every day. I didn’t really do anything different coming into the season. Whatever Coach says, I just do what he says because that is what works for all of the other people.”
Jackson is part of what looks to be a very solid team for the Knights. Rohan Doshi finished eighth on Tuesday, while Nic Stalzer was ninth, Colin Stern 11th and Ian Cunningham was 12th.
”During practice we run as a pack a lot,” Jackson said. “So that helps always running together during practice. We have guys like Rohan and Gabe (Yoder-Shenk) and Ian, who has been doing really well. And we also have some of the juniors like Shu Ming (Teoh) and Nic. We’re all still training and improving every day. So when the big meets come I feel like we have a shot of doing really well.
”This meet was fun. We’ve never done this before so that was exciting. Having our own cross country course was different.”
Most of the CVC batch meets are run at courses at Washington Crossing, Veterans Park or Mercer County Park. Having a meet at campus created a great atmosphere and drew a larger than usual crowd.
”We work out here all the time and that is where we started, with the loops we use to train,” Gould said. “We made a couple adjustments to make sure we were able to run it without too much lapping and also making it spectator friendly. We’re fortunate because we have great grounds here, a great course and great administrators who support and encourage us to do this sort of thing. And we had a bunch of other kids from the school come out and support their friends. It was fantastic.
”I thought it went well and hopefully everyone who was a guest here thought the same. Maybe we’ll come back and do it again at some point.”
Princeton High’s Jacob Rist was sixth in the boys meet to pace the Little Tigers on Tuesday.
In the girls meet, WW-P North’s Yutzki Oey ran a strong second half of the race to finish first in 18:40, which was 10 seconds ahead of Princeton’s Emma Eikelberner. Princeton’s Julia Bond was third.
The PHS girls had a strong showing as Paige Metzheiser was seventh, Mary Sutton was eighth, and Lou Mialhe finished ninth.
For the North girls, Jesse Nguyen was sixth overall. The Knights topped Hightstown, but fell to Robbinsville and Hopewell in the meet.