Little Tigers excel at annual event
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Emma Eikelberner’s third season of cross country began with her first win at a road race.
The Princeton High School junior was the top female finisher at the 6th Annual Helene Cody Cranbury 5k Run/Walk on Saturday in 20 minutes, 29 seconds.
”I am really excited for this season,” Eikelberner said. “It’s great to be a veteran for two years. I’m looking forward to seeing how our whole team improves. We don’t have just one or two really good athletes. We have a really strong top seven, if not top 12.”
The Little Tigers team came out en force to honor the memory of Helene Cody, the former PHS runner who passed away from a brain aneurysm on Oct. 26, 2008. It was her 16th birthday. The race helps to celebrate her life and honors the way that she lived in a warm and giving way.
”The Helene Cody, it’s an important part of our team history,” said PHS head coach Jim Smirk. “It’ll be part of our team history and consciousness for as long as I’m a part of the program. The Cody family is a part of our program.
”In the past, it was about remembering Helene. Many of these girls have never met Helene. Now it’s remembering the idea of what it means to be in our program. Any good program that wants to be successful knows it’s about more than running fast. It’s about feeling comfortable to take risks and trying to run fast. It’s moved into that. It’s a nice opportunity. It’s fun. This year they had a dance-off. A couple of girls showed their moves. One girl did the worm.”
Some of the Little Tigers also showed their speed, while for others it was a workout. James Cao was the overall winner in 15:15. Alexander Roth was second in 15:23 and Karl Bjorkman took third in 18:17. The top nine finishers were all Princeton residents. On the female side, Eikelberner was 17 seconds faster than Amber Rylak of Robbinsville. PHS’ Lou Mialhe was the third overall female finisher.
”It was really hot and really humid,” Eikelberner said. “The whole race, it was pretty hard to breathe. I tried to keep everything under control. I tried to focus on pacing. I usually go out too slow or too fast. I tried to keep it consistent. It paid off. I had enough to kick in the last mile.”
Eikelberner is part of a large group of returning runners for a PHS girls team that enjoyed a strong year last fall despite some injury issues. The Little Tigers took second in the Mercer County Championships, third in the Central Jersey Group III meet and ninth in the state Group III meet. All but one of their top seven have returned. Seniors Julie Bond, Mary Sutton and Paige Metzheiser return along with juniors Mialhe, Phoebe Whiteside and Eikelberner.
”This year, we really, really want to do the best we can,” Eikelbener said. “Especially because we have a lot of seniors that are going to be graduating. Within the top 12, we only lost Belinda (Liu to graduation). We want to make this our year and do the best we can. As a varsity runner, you definitely have a responsibility to be a role model to everyone else on the team. As a veteran, that goes hand in hand as well.”
There is a larger group than ever to help guide. PHS has 50 girls out for the team this year, the largest cross country team that Smirk has had.
”More numbers theoretically should translate to more talent walking through the door,” Smirk said. “The more you have, the more are running fast. Our idea is recruit good girls and teach them to run fast. We have good girls. We’ll teach them to run. That’s valuable to our program — we have good girls.”
They are the sort of girls that will train hard to improve. It’s vital as PHS looks to narrow the gap between it and last year’s county champions from West Windsor-Plainsboro High South.
”There’s a lot of well coached teams in the county,” Smirk said. “South is the hot hand. They’re legitimately ranked high in the state and ranked high in the nation. Coach (Kurt) Wayton has them locked in. They’re a great team, well coached. If you look at how they’re running and where they’re at, they’re a stronger team now. That motivates our team.”
Competition to be in PHS’ top seven by season’s end will continue to drive a Little Tigers team that figures to remain near the top in the county and state.
”Our runners who were freshmen last year, Sam Wong and Izzy Trenholm and Annie Walker, they’re all making a push to be on that varsity squad,” Smirk said. “This has been true for a while, but our top seven is flexible for any given week. We’re really talking about our top 10-12 in any given race. I think our depth is strong. It’s going to come down to how fast can we be up front.
”We have better depth this year. Our varsity in the past, we’d round out our top eight or nine, and if you have some injuries, that would be tough to fill in. That’s a testament to our veterans that we have the depth to do that now. Our seniors now and with Belinda last year, and our sophomores last year, and having a nice crew of seniors, they’re telling these girls and showing these girls, if you do the work, you’re going to find success. Our younger runners are taking that to heart and learning every day.”
Eikelberner and the Little Tiger returners are happy to see their team attracting new talent and more potential.
”I think it’s really encouraging that so many people are committed to our program,” Eikelberner said. “It really inspires new runners coming in, this is what you’ve done to be successful and I can learn from that.
”This is definitely the biggest team I’ve been on,” she said. “It’s kind of overwhelming since there’s so many people. We still want to emphasize that each one of us is here to do our best and we all have goals and want to get something out of this season. Whether that’s being on varsity, or getting a new PR, we all want to work our hardest to achieve those goals.”
Maybe the toughest thing about the biggest PHS girls team is just trying to know all the girls.
Said Eikelberner: “We played the name game at least 10 times and I’m still trying to learn names.”
Even harder than that was learning a new running form. Eikelberner worked at becoming more efficient with her foot strikes. She believes that her new form helps her get more out of expending the same energy.
”By the end of spring track, I was on my toes the whole time and my heel never touched the ground,” Eikelberner said. “My coach said if I started going more mid-foot, that would really improve my speed. That was a really long process. It took about six weeks to get me more mobile after that. In the beginning it was really frustrating. I could only do two miles in the beginning. It was kind of discouraging, but I gradually got more into it. I did a bunch of research and spent a lot of time watching YouTube videos on how to run properly.”
Eikelberner and Princeton will open the season Tuesday at Veterans Park against Hightstown, Lawrence and Hopewell with her first chance to display her new form in a county cross country meet. PHS is hoping it is the start of a healthy season for her and the returning experience along with the newcomers.
”Our veterans, we were pretty dinged up late in the spring,” Smirk said. “Julie Bond was hurt. In some ways, we limped to the end of the season. Lou and Paige, they were OK. Mary had a tough spring season. Those veterans did what we want to do. They took time to be healthy and lay down a base to be ready for the season. They focused on becoming structurally sound and working on injury prevention. Our veterans came back healthy. That’s what we want them to do. We’ll work on being fast when it counts.”
The season is just beginning, but Smirk likes what he has seen out of the PHS team. It is encouraging as they open a season that comes with plenty of potential.
”We’re putting our miles in and working on building our team,” Smirk said. “Things are moving along. We have a solid group of returners and our current sophomores are trying to figure out how too contribute. We’re developing our varsity runners and our varsity B runners. We’re looking pleasantly deep. A lot of things are up in the air. Helene Cody was a little shake-out for the girls. We saw some nice things.”