By Justin Feil
Anyone thinking that the Princeton High track team’s throwers would take a step back after the graduation of record-breaking star Sean Wilton was wrong.
Eddie Del Cid is part of a strong pack of juniors that helped to lead the Tiger boys to a pair of wins at the Mercer Coaches Relays on Saturday at Ewing High. Del Cid and classmates Rio Giamarese and Zachary Nelson won the boys’ discus while junior Dimiter Petrov, Giamarese and sophomore Shriram Joshi won the boys’ shot put. PHS could have swept the throws with sophomore Caleb Mildenberg and Del Cid recording the sixth and seventh best individual throws, but the Tiger senior Simon Obregon, their top javelin thrower who recorded a 140-foot throw the week earlier, was unavailable for the meet.
“I just tell the guys, ‘Let’s celebrate this accomplishment quick, but as soon as Monday happens, we just gotta go back to the weight room, go back into the lab and focus, see what we can do,’” said Del Cid. “But I really have a feeling that the throwing crew this year will do really well. And it really shows as of right now.”
Wilton is throwing as a freshman in college at Brown. Under throws coach Brandon Williams, who also coached Del Cid on the PHS football team in the fall, the group has continued to flourish in the early going to the spring season. The relays meet was a unique opportunity to put it all together.
“They’re small, but they’re a mighty group,” said PHS head coach Trey Carnevale. “They’re all under coach Williams and they’re all doing their throws in their own section. I know throws sometimes doesn’t really get the spotlight that it deserves. They really did a great job today as a team. They had one of those opportunities where, how we were talking about where in relay meets there’s not so many throws or opportunities to kind of compete as a team in the throw squad. For them to walk away with those two first-place medals was really just a sign of all their hard work. And it’s promising because a lot of them are underclassmen and they’re all coming back to kind of set that standard and keep building under coach Williams there.”
Del Cid’s day began with the javelin. He and Mildenberg knew they didn’t have a third teammate for the event so they focused on just staying calm and collected on the runway and putting out big efforts.
“We were able to manage that,” said Del Cid. “My friend Caleb hit a 13-foot PR, so that was very good on his side. And then I hit a 3-foot PR in the javelin, so overall it was a pretty good day for the javelin side.”
It got better with a win in the discus. Del Cid had the third-best individual throw of the meet, 114 feet, and Giamarese threw 106’6. When Nelson threw 97’9, it gave them a win by about four feet over Hightstown.
“I just decided to focus more on javelin,” said Del Cid. “And it pretty much just seems to work now because I was pretty good at shot put, but I was like, maybe I’m more of a disc and jav guy. And it shows that as of (Saturday) that I’m pretty much a disc and jav guy.”
The Tigers can still use him to add to their depth in the shot put, but Saturday’s relay meet went fine with the combination of Petrov (43’5.75), Giamarese (37’0.25) and Joshi (36’4) winning the shot put by less than a foot over Hightstown. It gives PHS a boost of confidence heading into the bigger meets of the season when they’ll compete for more meaningful championships.
“This pretty much shows that you can’t sleep on Princeton because even though we lost a really good guy, Sean Wilson the Brown commit, we can come back from what he did and we could probably put a lot of points up,” said Del Cid. “We can do that in other events like the javelin, shot put, disc too. We can probably put a lot of points together. If we all have good technique and stuff like that, we’ll be ready for that day.”
Del Cid is one of their more experienced throwers. He started out in middle school, though he originally had designs on being a sprinter. Princeton Middle School coach Daniel Lee encouraged him to try discus, and he went on to set the record for Princeton Middle School in discus.
“I’d like to give credit to Mr. Lee,” said Del Cid. “Without him, I don’t know where I’d be at right now in terms of track.”
When Del Cid came to the high school, he got more committed to lifting weight and worked at the throws even more diligently. It’s paid off. Last year, he was fifth in the Colonial Valley Conference Championships in discus as a sophomore. He placed fourth in the CVC Championships in discus in the indoor season this winter.
“Eddie has had tremendous growth from freshman year,” Carnevale said. “He’s really, really established himself as a huge leader within that group. And he’s just gotten really, really bought into the program and just coach Williams, our throws coach, he does a tremendous job developing all of our throwers right from our more experienced kids like Eddie to any newcomers that we might put in our throws group.”
It’s a group that pushes each other to excel in the throws. They wanted to perform well Saturday for Williams, who was away to welcome a new baby into his family. Williams has helped his throwers shape goals to reach their potential and help the team as much as possible, and they’ve absorbed his messages. Del Cid has been emphasizing to his teammates that they should be focusing on technique and not the results which will take care of themselves. He’s found it’s helped keep him in the hunt for more medals this spring in the discus, shot and javelin.
“When I got into throwing for PHS, my main goal was just to throw far,” said Del Cid. “And I’d say that my goal is to still the same, just to throw far, maybe win a county title, something like that for me and for the team. But overall, another goal I want for now is to have a very strong throwing crew and to get county points up on that board coming up soon.”
The throwers were just one PHS group with encouraging results in the relays meet. Even without some of their team competing, the Tigers could see a lot of potential for success. The boys 4×100 meter relay ran 44.95 seconds, the fourth best in program history, in their first time together. They also went a program fourth-best 1:35.59 in the 4×200. The PHS girls 4×200 ran 1:48.60 for the third-best time in school history. Without a senior in the mix, all of the girls relay members are eligible to return next year.
“We had really great representation,” said Carnevale. “And these early meets, as far as where we don’t want to entirely peak for this kind of meet, it’s still just really, really awesome seeing these results.”
With so much of the season left to build on Saturday’s performances, there’s a lot of excitement around the team. Del Cid is happy to be doing his part and helping to lift the level of a throwing group that already is making headlines.