Oey is frontrunner for North cross country
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
No one on the West Windsor-Plainsboro High North girls cross country team knows better than Yuzki Oey what to expect today.
The senior will toe the line for her final Mercer County Championships, though it won’t be at Washington Crossing Park that has served as host for her first three years. Thompson Park will host the county meet today with the boys starting at 2:15 p.m. and the girls at 2:45 p.m.
”We’re definitely ready individually and as a team,” Oey said. “Even though we have a small team this year, I feel everyone has improved a lot since July and everyone is ready to race their best.”
Oey has shown steady progress over her career. She moved up each year at the county meet, from 29th as a freshman, to 22nd as a sophomore and then to 21st last year and brings that experience and some motivation into her final county race.
”I’m definitely a lot faster than my freshman and sophomore year,” Oey said. “Even since last year, I’ve improved a lot. With that improvement comes bigger goals, like trying to do a lot better than I did last year.
”I wouldn’t say I’m totally relaxed, but it’s not nervousness either. On the team, we like to say, we’re not nervous, we’re excited. I think everyone is excited for this year, excited to see how well they can do and how well we can do as a team and how much we can push ourselves.”
The Knights have just six varsity runners this year, and Oey has been their leader from the start. She was their top finisher two weeks ago at the Fall Classic at Thompson Park when she ran 20:09 for seventh place in the Varsity A race.
”She’s a leader,” said Knight girls coach Monica Biro. “She understands she had to step into a role. She’s new at being a front runner at North, but she wasn’t scared.
”She gets the big picture. She trusts in everything. She puts the team first. She always thinks of herself second before the team. That’s something special that helps lead the program.”
Oey deflects any credit for stepping into a top role along with fellow senior Jessy Nguyen, who has been the Knights’ No. 2 finisher this year.
”It’s a natural thing, just being on the team four years,” Oey said. “Freshman year, you follow the seniors and juniors. Sophomore year, you kind of point the freshmen in the right direction but you’re still looking up to the juniors and seniors. Junior year, you take on a little more responsibility.”
Then senior year, in the case of Oey, you move to the top spot in races for the team while continuing to lower your times. She is pleased with the way her season has unfolded.
”When the season started out, I wasn’t really sure how much better I would get this season or how much better the team would get,” Oey said. “The beginning of the season, we didn’t seem like we would be that great because of the small numbers and so many girls are inexperienced. Throughout these past four months, we’ve all improved at rates we would have never expected in July.”
Oey believes that her improvement has come from adding more training and staying dedicated to the sport. She came off a season of spring track, went into the summer and geared up for her final scholastic year.
”Just personally, I know I’ve been running a lot more miles than I have been,” Oey said. “My recoveries have gone from five to seven miles. Long runs are 12 miles, so almost a half-marathon. Last year, if I heard that I’d be running seven-mile recoveries, it would have been hard to believe. Additional mileage helps. It trains me to be able to withstand more and have that strength.”
Oey was within 20 seconds of three Princeton High runners that came in ahead of her at the Fall Classic, and Oey will be looking to overtake as many competitors as possible today in a bit of a rematch.
”It’s definitely the biggest meet so far this season,” Oey said. “I’m very excited for it. I always look forward to this county meet. It’s also for me a meet that gets us ready for sectionals, which is really the determining meet whether we can keep going or if our season ends. While doing well at counties is important, we still have bigger goals at sectionals to do well.”
The Knights have a mix of talent and experience, but share a common goal of advancing out of sectionals for the first time in Oey’s career.
”It’s her fourth year,” Biro said. “Jessy, it’s her second year. She’s a senior. She sprinted for me her freshman and sophomore year. if I didn’t know that, I’d look and say, what a distance runner. She’s fearless. She’s thrived on the whole distance running thing. She’s showing she has a year under her belt. Sahana (Natarajan) has been running for us. Anu (Kandasamy), it’s her first year running distance. Then we have a junior Misai (Davis), who has been injured off and on and she’s developed into a good runner. And Julia Grande is a freshman for us.
”They haven’t been racing with each other in cross country, but they found a way to click together. That’s why we found they’re such a special group of girls. We saw how much they bonded together and how much they want it. It’s a special group that you can’t find all the time.”
The Knights have been learning together what it takes at the varsity level to achieve great things. A difficult division made the regular season helpful in getting up to speed, and WW-P North is hoping it will pay off at the championship portion of the year.
”Having Princeton bump up in the division, I think it helped get us ready for what will happen at counties, and what will happen at counties will happen at sectionals,” Biro said. “There are no surprises. It’s a matter of all seven girls have to do their part. We know it doesn’t take one girl, it takes all seven. It’s a great way for the younger girls to learn fast what cross country is all about. They’re excited. They’re pumped. They look great.”
While Oey was looking forward to finishing her county career at the Washington Crossing course that had become one of her favorites, she sees an advantage to running at Thompson Park this week. It will have her ready for the sectionals and the chance to extend her senior season of cross country, and she is looking forward to getting back on the Thompson course today.
”I definitely want to run faster,” Oey said. “I want to push myself and do the best that I can, beat some girls that I haven’t beaten this year yet.”