Sutton seals slim gap in girls XC
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
With her Princeton High School girls cross country teammates in view throughout the race, Mary Sutton felt comfortable at the Shore Coaches Invitational on Saturday.
”I could see blue the whole race,” said the Little Tigers senior. “To finish with teammates is really good.”
PHS puts a premium on pack running, and it paid off at rainy, muddy Holmdel Park as Sutton was their fifth finisher, just 20 seconds behind the Little Tigers’ top finisher, Lou Miahle. Miahle was 13th in 20:26, Julie Bond took 14th in 20:32, Paige Metzheiser was 15th in 20:32, Emma Eikelberner came in 16th in 20:34 and Sutton was 19th in 20:46 as PHS finished third overall in the championship division race at Shore Coaches. They had the smallest gap of any team in any division Saturday.
”We went in not really sure what was going to happen,” Sutton said. “We tried to stay as positive and confident as we could and gave each other a pep talk that we have a good team and have the potential to be a good team.
”When we heard we got third and did better than our expectations, we were happy and happy for our work.”
Izzy Trenholm was 39th and Sarah Klebanov took 41st to round out a solid day for the Little Tigers, who finished with 72 points.
”When we have dual meets, we’re all pretty close to each other,” Sutton said. “We usually finish 1 through 5 which is pretty awesome. We do work off each other. It’s the only way we’re going to get better.”
Just behind the Little Tigers in fourth in the championship division with 73 points was West Windsor-Plainsboro High South. Christina Rancan was second overall for the Pirates — the eighth best time all day on the course — in 19:09. Deirdre Casey was ninth in 20:05, Alex Heterberg was 17th in 20:41, Haley Rich was 21st in 20:55, and was Edlyn Gulama 29th. Their 20:25 average was faster than PHS, but the Little Tigers’ pack made the difference.
”If you look at the merged results, we ended up on the front side of it, fourth overall, truly because of our pack,” said PHS girls coach Jim Smirk. “We didn’t have a single girl under 20:00, but we had a 20-second spread 1-5. I think it speaks to what our team is all about, and it has been for years. It’s great to have a girl or two out front, but we want to have 5-7 be as close as possible.
”They all have unique personalities when it come to races, but they’ve found a way to work well together. They know each other’s areas of strengths and their weaknesses and help each other through them.”
In the A Division girls race, the Montgomery High School girls placed fifth with 158 points. Julia Hans took sixth in the race 19:58. She was the fastest freshman of the entire day over the 5-kilometer course. More than 1,500 total runners on the girls side ran Saturday.
The West Windsor-Plainsboro North girls were 11th in the A Division race with 292 points. Jessy Nguyen was 14th in 20:32 to lead the Knights.
On the boys side, the Princeton High School boys were fourth in the C Division with 205 points. Jacob Rist was 10th in 17:08 for the Little Tigers.
The Montgomery High boys took eighth in the A Division with 299 points. Taylor Gatt paced the Cougars in 24th overall in 17:10.
In the championship race, the WW-P North boys were seventh with 176 points. Kian Jackson was 21st in 17:06 for the Knights. WW-P South was sixth with 141 points. Nikhil Pulimood was second overall in 16:01, five seconds behind the winner, and he posted the second fastest time of the day overall to highlight the Pirates’ performance.
”We had exactly one boy and one girl do well enough,” said Pirates head coach Kurt Wayton. “That’s Christina on the girls side and Nikhil on the boys side. After that, we had some solid performances but nothing to write about.
”Going forward from here, it’s going to be exciting,” he said. “Princeton girls are fantastic. Robbinsville boys are fantastic. North kids are always well prepared and ready to go. It’s not going to be a case of training through the counties. It’s going to be a dogfight. We’ll see. If my kids have grit, then it’ll show.”
The PHS girls showed some resolve Saturday. They faced some unusual circumstances, including missing Smirk, who had to ride to the hospital with a junior varsity runner who collapsed, but he reported has recovered well.
”It was raining the entire day,” Sutton said. “Our bus didn’t show up until an hour and a half late. We were a bit rushed. W didn’t have a tent for the first hour. Overall, we told everyone, everyone is in the same boat as us, and we have to stay positive and say something positive like, we love to run in the rain. We had to stay positive mentally so we’d have a good outcome physically. We were lucky to have the rain clear out before we started.”
The course was still a mud pit when they ran, but the Little Tigers stuck with their game plan and put together an encouraging race.
”It certainly boosts our confidence,” Sutton said. “At first, we didn’t think we’d do that well in the race, but after staying positive and having confidence and staying focused, we did better than we thought we would. Now that we’ve gotten third, it’s fueled our fire to be up with the top dogs in the state. It’ll fuel us to keep pushing hard in practice.”
Sutton has been pushing herself to new limits each year that she has run. She also plays basketball at PHS, but it is running that has risen to the top for her.
”I love basketball, but I love running now,” she said. “I want to run in college. I still have a love for basketball, but cross country is just the best thing that’s probably ever happened to me. I started loving cross country when I got to high school.”
Sutton came to her fourth Shore Coaches expecting a lot of herself. Her previous experience helped her navigate to a finish that aided the Little Tigers.
”I knew the parts of the course I had to plow through and how to take control of the hills,” Sutton said. “It wasn’t my best race on Holmdel, but it was good enough for the day and it got us third place.”
Smirk believes that this year’s group has the ability to be a special team. They ran together, and it paid off Saturday.
”We ran hard and executed our race plan and had a good day,” he said. “It was a great job on their part. I think it’s an indication that year after year we’re doing the right things. We’re working on becoming a better team.”
When the Little Tigers return to compete at Holmdel, it will be for the Group III state race and a bid to the Meet of Champions. It’s the way that Sutton would like to see her scholastic cross country season end. The Shore Coaches showed that PHS is on track for a fine finish.
”At the beginning of the season, some girls weren’t doing as well as they thought they could,” Sutton said. “Now after we’ve gotten those first couple race jitters out, we know what we have to do to be good. We’ve worked hard in practice on the little things because little things count the most. We’re working together to become better and understand our roles on the team.”