Girls Sectionals Recap: Princeton wins Central Group 4, Lee wins Central Group 3
Mercer County schools had themselves a day at sectionals! In race after race, teams and individuals rose to the occasion and punched above their weight. There were so many inspiring team efforts and breakthrough performances — and not just from the ten teams and three other individuals that Mercer County will be sending to groups next week. Many other runners ended their seasons on a high note.
Below are some highlights and photos from the girls races. Click below to see an album with more photos from every race.
Also, a special congratulations to all the seniors who ran their last XC race on Saturday. They may not be on the course next fall, but their leadership efforts and contributions to their team’s culture will be reflected in the steps of their younger teammates.
Group 4 Girls
Princeton’s Kajol Karra (left) and Grace Hegedus (right) lead the Central Group 4 race just over a mile into it. | Track Mercer
Princeton (1st place). The Tigers dominated the Central Group 4 race, defending their title with just 42 points over Freehold Township (90 points) and Hunterdon Central (92 points). They put five runners in the top 16 and averaged an incredible 19:11 on the tough course!
Princeton’s front-running duo of Kajol Karra and Grace Hegedus once again scored minimal points. Karra finished in 3rd place with a phenomenal time of 18:35.6, trimming 3 seconds off her course PR on the senior’s last trip around Thompson Park. Hegedus took 5th place in 18:53.5, her fourth straight sub-19 on this course. Not far behind Hegedus was Eowyn Deess, who has caught fire this postseason, just like this year. In this race, she went out harder and closer to Karra and Hegedus than usual, and that proved to be no problem — she came away with a very fast course PR of 19:05 for 7th place.
Phoenix Roth might’ve had the biggest breakthrough of the whole squad, taking 11th place in 19:28. That beat her course PR by 16 seconds and came within 20 seconds of her overall 5K PR. Rosemary Warren continued her rapid comeback from injury by taking 16th place in 19:53. That was 40 seconds faster than last week and just about matched her time at this meet last year.
Sevanne Knoch (29th in 20:34) and Isabella Franceschi (31st in 20:40) ran their best races of the season to round out Princeton’s super squad. Both girls displaced every other team’s #5 runner.
WWP South (8th place). The Pirates were led by a phenomenal race from junior Risha Rao, who qualified for groups with a 10th-place finish in 19:19. Read more about her Spotlight Performance down below. Her classmate Shivani Joshi had a breakout race of her own to take 41st in 21:14, which was 48 seconds faster than on this same course last week. Freshman Cecilia Szostak tagged up with junior Yana Chheda halfway through the race and was pulled to a course PR of 21:39 for 47th, with Chheda at her side in 21:40 for 48th.
Hightstown (13th place). Sophomore Siena Rivera led the Rams with a 23rd-place finish in 20:23, a great time that would have qualified her for groups out of any other race. Madalyne Ng capped her senior XC season with her best race of the year to take 56th in 22:11. Junior Amara Stewart (66th in 22:36) ran a huge race, beating last week’s time by over 50 seconds and setting an overall 5K PR even on this hilly course.
Group 3 Girls
Sydney Young (Hopewell Valley), Izzy Meth (Lawrence), and Allison Lee (WWP North) run in the lead pack approaching the two-mile mark in the Central Group 3 race. | Track Mercer
Individuals. Defending champion Allison Lee cruised at the front of this race for two miles, running with five other girls that also included Hopewell Valley’s Sydney Young and Lawrence’s Izzy Meth. But then Lee dropped the hammer on the hills, pulling away to claim the sectional title by 17 seconds over Middletown South’s Amelia Pattwell. The senior’s winning time was 18:10, a result that was both impressive and also left plenty in the tank for next week at Holmdel.
The juniors Young and Meth were both well-rewarded for sticking with Lee’s pace for as long as they did. Young finished 3rd in 18:42, crushing her course PR (from last week) by 25 seconds. That mark is #11 all-time among Mercer County girls at Thompson Park. Meth, who was never able to run this course full-strength last year due to injury, finally shattered her PR from freshman year with a 19:05 for 6th place. That’s #25 on the all-time county list.
WWP North (2nd place). Behind winners Middletown South (38 points), the WWP North (65 points) prevailed in an extremely tight finish between the next three teams. The Knights’ #2-#5 runners all had solid races and finished in a span of 57 seconds to back up Lee’s 1-point finish. Juliette Halpin finished 12th in 20:13, followed by freshman Anita Bhatia in a course PR of 20:36 for 16th place. Isabella Lee took 19th in 21:01, and Sara Secora was right behind her in 21:10 for 21st. WWP North’s #6 runner, Evelyn Yang (26th in 21:34), finished four places ahead of Colts Neck’s #6 runner to tip the tiebreaker in the Knights’ favor. Overall, the Knights averaged 20:14, which was 3 seconds faster than last week.
Hopewell Valley (4th place). The Bulldogs dropped their team average from 20:36 last week to 20:19 this week. Young’s huge race for 3rd place was part of that, but the rest of the girls ran great, too. Anna Wilson (14th in 20:24) set a 28-second course PR, Elsie Rey-de-Castro (15th in 20:32) finished right after her in a season’s best, and Sophia Pellegrino (17th in 20:43) followed closely to match her time from last week. The big difference-maker was Lainie Smith’s breakout performance — the junior placed 22nd in 22:13, crushing her overall 5K PR by almost 20 seconds even on this tough course. Interestingly, after merging results across all four girls races at this meet, Hopewell Valley flipped above WWP North in the team standings, which shows just how tight the race will be at groups.
Lawrence (8th place). Behind Meth’s 5th-place finish, seniors Tayla Weiss (55th in 24:41) and Baeleigh Thomas (61st in 25:53) both ran their best races of the seasons. The Cardinals also deserve credit for fielding a complete team of five girls, which is a feat that a majority of the Central Group 3 schools could not accomplish.
Incomplete teams. Steinert junior Ashley Foster delivered her best best race of the season at sectionals, a 23:03 for 45th place. Nottingham’s Natalie Wiebesiek capped a great freshman year with a 24:00 for 53rd place, which was a nice improvement from last week and just off her overall PR. Hamilton West freshman Carley Nazario crushed her 5K PR with a 25:47 for 59th place.
Group 2 Girls
Allentown’s Addison Frascella, Isabella Maltese, and Emma Ruchelman (from left to right) run together in the second mile of the Central Group 2 race. | Track Mercer
Allentown (2nd place). The Redbirds are heading back to groups after putting four girls in the top 20 and finishing in 2nd place. The trio of Isabella Maltese (11th in 20:58), Emma Ruchelman (12th in 21:01) and Addison Frascella (15th in 21:20) ran together for almost the entire race and pushed each other to big results, including a massive course PR for Maltese. Vivian La Froscia likewise impressed with a 19th-place finish in 22:01, her strongest race yet. Natalie Robbin (35th in 22:58) sealed the deal claim 2nd place and send the Redbirds to Holmdel.
Robbinsville (6th place). The Ravens were led by Snigda Gonugunta, who delivered a massive race to place 21st in 22:04 — 38 seconds faster than last week and only 7 seconds off her overall 5K PR from her much flatter home course. Behind her, the Ravens employed some incredible pack running: Sahaili Patel (37th in 23:06), Abigail Andrus (38th in 23:06), Meghann Hansen (39th in 23:07), and Kavya Senthilkumar (40th in 23:12) all ran side-by-side from gun to tape. For the second year in a row, Robbinsville finished as the unenviable 6th-place team, one spot out of qualifying for groups. But six of their top seven are just underclassmen, so they’ll be back with even more fire next year.
Spotlight Performance: Risha Rao (WWP South, Jr.)
Coming into this season, it was clear that the junior class of girls in Mercer County was loaded with state-caliber talent. One name that wasn’t necessarily on that preseason list, though, was WWP South’s Risha Rao. She had a solid 5K PR last fall of 20:46 (and 21:16 at Thompson Park), and her 3200m PR of 12:20 was #20 in the county last spring, but those aren’t exactly times that qualify for states in Group 4.
Others might not have predicted her to be a major contender this fall, but Rao did.
“I believed in myself a bit more,” Rao said about the mindset that propelled her to an incredible cross country season this year. “I put myself out there.”
Rao’s name is certainly out there now, after running 19:19 to place 10th in the Central Group 4 race and qualify for the group championships. That’s just the latest chapter in an astonishing season-long progression. She started with a 20:03 for 12th place at Six Flags, jumped to the next level when she ran a 19:24 for 4th place at CVC Divisionals, and now reached a whole new tier with this latest performance.
Rao’s self-confidence and internal motivation drove her to put in the work to reach this new level. “Over the summer, I built a better base and did a lot of longer tempos in my training,” she explained. That strong base is paying off now, helping her get better and better in these late-season races.
Rao’s goal for this race was to come home with one of the ten medals, and she was holding onto 10th place when she reached the big climb in the final mile. That was when Rao — who doesn’t exactly consider herself a hill runner — once again drew on her mental fortitude to power her towards her goals. “I just wanted to hold on. I thought, ‘once I get past this hill, I’m done with the race.’ That helped me get through it.”
Not only did she survive the hill, but she pulled away to secure the medal and record the 6th-fastest Thompson Park time in school history. She’ll now be just the second Pirate to race at groups in the last six years.
Rao’s mix of mental and physical strength has carried her to new heights in just a matter of months. With at least one more race this season — plus senior year — there’s no telling how much higher it will take her.