PHS Girls’ Cross Country 2nd at Group Meet, Displaying Competitive Savvy in Making MOC
For the Princeton High girls’ cross country team, its second-place finish at the Group 3 state championship meet last Saturday was a microcosm of the program’s rise up the ranks over the last few years.
“We didn’t have a great start, I had us at seventh or eighth at the first mile,” said PHS head coach Jim Smirk, reflecting on the competition which took place at Holmdel.
“We ran effectively on the back end of the race. They are veteran runners; I like the way they stuck with the race plan and trusted their training.”
In placing second to champion Mendham, PHS was paced by junior Lou Mialhe, who took 14th individually, covering the 5,000-meter course in a time of 19:45. Senior Mary Sutton placed 20th in 20:01 with junior Emma Eikelberner coming in 28th at 20:12, senior Paige Metzheiser taking 32nd in 20:17, and senior Julie Bond finishing 57th in 20:49
The team’s second-place finish booked PHS a trip to the Meet of Champions (MOC) on November 22 at Holmdel, the program’s first appearance at the prestigious event since 2010.
“It wasn’t just our goal this year; we set out to do it a couple of years ago,” said Smirk, whose team’s 20:12 average time on Saturday was a program record for the Holmdel course.
“When Elyssa [Gensib] and Jenna [Cody] graduated, we lost two top-end runners and there was a void in the program. We had to re-imagine ourselves. Julie Bond and Mary Sutton were sophomores and Paige was a JV runner. We take a lot of pride in what we accomplished; we didn’t get a big infusion of talent. When you go back a few years ago, we weren’t at this level. We were a decent team, we would make states. Every season we got better, not just in cross country.”
Running together in a tight pack has helped PHS make strides. “This is what the program is built on, they had to be ready to do the work to make the MOC,” said Smirk. “It was not going to happen overnight. The pack raised the level of each runner.”
Mialhe has raised her level of performance over the last few weeks. “Lou struggled early; she had an interruption in her training,” said Smirk.
“She was in Peru this summer in a place where she couldn’t really run. I am impressed by her ability to hit on all cylinders but it is very much because of the team. Girls like Emma took the burden off of her; Mary did that too. All five of the top runners have placed first for us at some point.”
Harnessing her talent and intensity has helped senior Sutton become a top performer for the Little Tigers.
“Day in, day out, we have to pull Mary back and have her be more patient,” said Smirk.
“A year ago, had this happened she would not have been able to do as well. We fell behind but at the 2-mile mark, she pops out in the lead for us and I realized that Mendham was the only team with two runners ahead of us. She dominated that middle mile. She still looked great and was able to set Lou up for a fantastic finish. That is four years of high quality work.”
Junior Eikelberner showed her quality on Saturday by overcoming a shaky start.
“She was 82nd at the first mile; she got swallowed up a little bit at the beginning,” said Smirk.
“Last year or even earlier this season, she might have panicked but she kept her focus and ran very well. She took an elbow in the jaw late in the race and just took the thump and kept going. She was locked in and she ran great.”
Metzheiser’s consistency has been a great plus for PHS this fall. “Paige has been a rock for us,” asserted Smirk. “She has given us constant quality, with no injuries, no setbacks. She just got a little better each race; she has been a big part of our success.”
The presence of Bond in the race despite a nagging hip injury helped PHS succeed on Saturday. “As of 3:30 on Friday, she was sitting out the race,” said Smirk.
“We kept her on the bike. I said that if she could convince me that we would be a better team with her on the line, she could go. She didn’t have to convince me because some of the other girls did. They said our best team would be with her on the line because of the fact that she is on the line makes us a better team no matter what she does. The proof was in the pudding. She was only 10 seconds off her Shore Coaches time. She was hampered by a hip injury but she was very confident and strong.”
While PHS was proud of its strong performance last Saturday, it isn’t planning to rest on its laurels as it returns to the MOC.
“They weren’t talking about getting second on the bus ride home, they were talking about next week and doing better,” said Smirk.