Pulimood wins group crown
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
The boys and girls teams from West Windsor-Plainsboro High South didn’t take the easy way, but both were fast enough to earn wild cards to the Meet of Champions along with WW-P North individual Yuzki Oey.
Paced by Nikhil Pulimood’s third win in as many races, the Pirate boys placed fourth in the Group IV state championship Saturday at Holmdel Park, just missing one of the three spots to automatically qualify for the MOC. They had the best average of any non-automatic qualifier and will move on to the MOC this Saturday at Holmdel.
”For the past few years, we haven’t had to worry about wild cards,” said Pulimood, a senior. “That was definitely tough. There’s definitely uncertainty. I think we were pretty confident because our average was faster than Old Bridge’s, we thought. We had a pretty solid average. The non-publics had already raced. We were pretty confident but there’s a little uncertainty.
”I’m really happy. I’ve never raced without my team. I’m happy to have them come along with me.”
Pulimood won the Group IV meet in 15:44, and the Pirates scored 161 points. Cherry Hill East won with 73 points, Kingsway was second with 101 and Old Bridge edged WW-P South, 145-161.
”I’ve always thought of cross country as more of a team sport,” Pulimood said. “It’s hard that our team hasn’t done as well as we could. Our team stepped up a great amount (Saturday) and I think they have more in them. It’s great to win individually, but it’s hard to be 100 percent happy, especially in cross country, if your team doesn’t win.”
Pulimood was 11 seconds ahead of the runner-up. Tim Bason finished fifth in 16:03. Sam Williams finished 22nd in 16:35. Zach Crossey took 62nd in 17:15 and Zabih Kotecha ran 17:38 for 93rd. Tom Moxham was 114th and Dexter Benkard took 121st.
”With Nikhil, the last couple weeks we’ve been moving the last half of the race,” said Pirates head coach Kurt Wayton. “We went substantially earlier. We went at about 1,000 meters in. It’s exciting to coach a kid that’s in the type of groove he’s in now.
”You never want to go into a race like this (MOC) thinking about winning. There are so many things that could go right and so many things that could go wrong. It’s exciting to have the ability. I want him to have faith in his training, faith in his ability and faith in himself. He’s as tough as there are out there.”
Pulimood had to stay tough when it was hard for him to stay warm. Despite bundling up before the race, it took him a while to feel good during the group race.
”For a little bit, I was trying to feel it out,” he said. “It took a while to get warmed up to the race. It was really cold. My legs weren’t moving for a while. The last five minutes or so, it felt relaxed and great like that. It was a really weird race to have at Holmdel. I’ve never had it tougher at the beginning than the end.”
The Pirate girls are looking forward to the opportunity to run again Saturday after they didn’t run as fast as they had hoped in the group meet. The WW-P South girls team finished fifth in Group IV, but picked up one of two wild card entries for teams because its 20:05 average was the second best of all teams that did not automatically qualify.
Christina Rancan was fifth and Deirdre Casey was sixth, both in 19:10. Alex Hesterberg finished 33rd in 20:09. Haley Rich was 57th in 20:49. Edlyn Gulama took 76th in 21:08. Amy Tsai was 93rd and Bernadette Cao was 120th.
”It was pretty scary,” Casey said of waiting for a wild card. “I thought we had a pretty good shot of winning. When we got fifth, it was a shock to all of us. It was an off day for all of us.”
Casey ran as close to what was expected of her of anyone on the Pirates team. South is hoping that others will find their stride next week, and is motivated to finish better.
”That’s how my girls are going to use it,” said Pirates girls coach Josh Siegel. “We didn’t have the group race we wanted to, but we’re going to use that to fuel the fire for next week and go after it.
”Deirdre had a great race. She was our leader for the week. Unfortunately we didn’t all have the race that we’re capable of.”
Casey is hoping that she’s not done improving either. She would like to go even faster with her next chance and see the team finish the state season on a high note.
”I thought I did have a good day,” she said. “I PR’d at Holmdel by 17 seconds. I still want to do better. The team, it kind of broke my heart. We have another chance now, so it’s not so much heartbreak as determination.”
Casey is one of the Pirates’ four that have returned from last year’s top five. They have experience and understand what is at stake at the MOC. They are looking at it as a chance to rebound.
”The beginning of the season, we came in with really high goals,” Casey said. “Last year, we were picked to win Meet of Champs. Until sectionals last week, we felt it was all coming together. This year, the training has been harder and better.
”(Saturday) was a huge disappointment. I think we’ll come back and Meet of Champs will be good. I still think we can win.”
Siegel, too, is optimistic. He believes that the Pirates will return to the way that they have been running through much of the year.
”We’ve had a great season,” he said. “There hasn’t been a time when the girls haven’t run what they’re capable of. This wasn’t a step back, but it wasn’t a step in the right direction. We’re making sure this week we get back focused on what we need to do to come back next week.”
WW-P North has the only other MOC qualifier as their top runner advanced as an individual. The Knight girls finished 15th in Group IV with 371 points, just ahead of Montgomery High, which had edged the Knights in the Central Jersey Group IV meet last week.
Yuzki Oey earned an individual wild-card berth to the MOC by placing 13th in the Group IV race in 19:28. Jessica Nguyen was 44th in 20:31. Sahana Natarajan was 88th, Anu Kandasamy took 112th, Julia Grande was 135th, Sarah Liu was 137th and Masai Davis was 140th.
The Cougars were 16th overall in Group IV with 382 points. They had a 21:23 average finishing time.
Julia Hans was 36th in 20:11. She was the third freshman overall in Group IV. Cara Schiksnis was 62nd in 20:54, Gianna Tedeschi was 92nd, Emma Huff took 106th, Sarah McGowan was 109th, Emily Dembinski was 110th and Julianne Hillsamer was 123rd.
For the boys, WW-P North placed ninth in Group IV with 245 points and a 17:10 average. Kian Jackson led the way in 34th in 16:49, Shu Ming Teoh ran 17:03 for 46th. Rohan Doshi was 52nd in 17:08. Colin Stern ran 17:12 for 59th. Jonathan Logan was 94th in 17:38. Justin Bauter was 119th and Gabe Yoder-shenk ran 18:25 for 135th.
The Princeton High School boys were 13th in the Group III race with an average of 17:33. They had a solid 50-second split between their first and fifth finishers.
Jacob Rist ran 17:05 for 35th, Alex Roth was 57th in 17:24 and Noah Chen ran 17:28 for 62nd. Jonathan Petrozzini was 89th and James Cao was 93rd. Alex Ackerman took 98th and Patrick O’Connell was 105th.