By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
In the week leading up to the Mercer County Track and Field Championships, Paul Brennan was starting to feel more and more like he had a chance to put together a strong performance., The Princeton High sophomore had started the season slowly due to an injury suffered during training. But as he got closer to the beginning of championship season, Brennan started to feel more like himself., “I was very happy to finally put the season together,” said Brennan, who broke his previous record throw in the discus by nine feet to win the event at the Mercer meet last Saturday. “Earlier this season was slow because I started with an injury of a bruised tailbone that delayed my lifting and how the season progressed. But everything started to click about two weeks ago and I was able to get one out there and beat my PR by nine feet.”, Brennan’s win in the discus and second place in the shot put helped the Little Tigers finish second with 91 points, just one point behind West Windsor-Plainsboro High North, which captured the team title. The Princeton girls finished ninth with 25 points in the girls meet. WW-P South captured the girls team title with 94.3 points. Stuart Country Day School picked up seven points in the girls meet., On the boys side, Brennan won the discus with an impressive 172-feet, 1-inch effort and was also second in the shot put. Alex Roth was first in the 3,200 meters in 9:30.44, while teammate Will Hare finished second in the event. In the 1,600 Roth was second and Hare finished third. Nils Wildberg won the long jump with an effort of 22-feet, while Varun Narayan was fourth in the event. Narayan was third and Wildberg finished fourth in the triple jump., Oliver Hamit was fourth in the 400 meters, Nick Delaney was fourth in the 800 meters, Simon Schenk was fourth in the pole vault,, The Princeton girls finished first in the 4×400-meter relay in 4:02.42 behind the efforts of Colleen Linko, Jackie Patterson, Justice Taylor and Michelle Vassilev. Jackie Patterson was second in the 400 meters. The Little Tigers were also third in the 4×800 relay., Michelle Kwafo of Stuart finished third in the 100-meter hurdles and Casey Nelson was sixth in the 3,200 meters., For Brennan, the strong performance in the discus at the Mercer meet helped turn around what had been a frustrating spring season. He started to feel like everything was coming together leading up to the Little Tigers’ final dual meet., “After the last dual meet and the practices that week leading up to it, I was feeling really confident that I could hit a big one,” said Brennan, a Cranbury resident. “I was thinking high 160s. I was not expecting 172. During my third throw in the series I hit 169 and I was really happy with that leading up to finals. It made me confident and I kept going and improving and I hit 172 with my fourth round throw., “i was really happy with the effort. I had made some mechanical errors and lost some technique due to the injury. But once it started to click, I could be more aggressive with the throw.”, Brennan’s injury meant a slow start to the spring season. But if last week’s effort at the Mercer meet is any indication, he’s in for a strong finish to the season., “I ended the winter season with regionals and two or three weeks after that I was doing some lifting and kind of fell with the weight on me,” he said. “It could have been worse. I was happy it was not as bad as it could have been. It took me three to four weeks to recover and I had to slow down my training. I was only doing slow, light movements so that was frustrating for me. This meet I was happy with the results. Now I am glad I took the season a little slow and everything came together.”, And if there is a point in the season where he wants it to all come together, this is the time for Brennan., “I am really happy it is clicking now,” he said. “This is the most important part of the season with counties and then sectionals and states. You need big marks to qualify and take the next step. I am confident I can take those steps and do well in these meets. My training is peaking toward this time and I am feeling ready and prepared.”, The only drawback for Brennan was that the Little Tigers came up one point short in their quest for a team title., “We were confident coming into the meet,” Brennan said. “Earlier in the season we thought there was about a five point difference between a few teams. We were confident we could beat them in the running part and we did., “We just came up a little short. We had the prom the day before so it was a tough time. But I was happy with the team performance. For a lot of us we felt like if we did one place better we could have won. But everyone did their best. It is tough to lose by one point but the team really rallied together and a lot of people did better than expected. So I was happy and and I think most people were happy with their efforts. It shows how championships can work. In track it is a team sport and you compete as a team and as individuals. Every point matters. As long as everyone is doing their best we understood that as a team we have to be happy.”
