September Takeaways: Evenly Matched Boys Teams, Fabulous Freshmen, and More
October is already here, and championship season is right around the corner – we’re only 22 days from CVCs and 31 days from sectionals and MAPLs. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s look back and see what we learned about Mercer County teams in September.
The Princeton girls are firing on all cylinders.
Kajol Karra (Princeton) finishes in 7th place at the Bowdoin XC Classic 2025. | John Nepolitan for RunnerSpace
As amazing as the Princeton girls were last fall, they’re running even faster this year. In 2024, their top five started the season by averaging 19:19 at the Jerry Hart Invitational and then 20:21 at the Bowdoin Park Classic. This year, they averaged 18:58 and 20:06 at those same meets! And their top-seven averages improved by even more, showing that they’re both faster and deeper this year.
Princeton hasn’t faced any real in-state challenges yet – they easily outran a short-handed Haddonfield in the merge at the Bowdoin Park Classic – so Shore Coaches will be an important test for them. But it’s safe to say that Princeton is poised for a very special season.
The other top girls teams, including Hopewell Valley and WWP North, were fairly quiet in September, so Shore Coaches will be the first real opportunity to analyze where everyone is at. For what it’s worth, NJ.com ranks Princeton at NJ #2, Hopewell Valley at NJ #12, and WWP North at NJ #20.
Mercer County’s boys teams are deep and evenly matched.
Ryan Heissler (Allentown) leads the pack in the sophomore race at the Thompson 2 Miler. | Jeff Granit for NJ Advance Media
Through the first month of the season, there’s no telling who will end up as the best boys team in Mercer County. In fact, there are at least six teams who have a realistic shot at claiming the title.
Consider the following comparison of team averages in the first few meets. (Yes, comparing times on different courses on different days is a bad way to size up teams, but it’s the only measure available until these teams go head-to-head – or at least until they run the same course on the same day, like at Shore Coaches on Saturday. Also, except for Bowdoin Park, none of these courses are an order of magnitude more challenging than the others.)
At Run the Night on opening weekend, WWP North averaged a very quick 10:23 over the two-mile course. According to some race equivalency calculators – again, this is very unscientific – that’s worth a 5K time between 16:33 and 16:42.
Princeton averaged 16:43 at the Jerry Hart Invitational, and that was without senior Braedyn Capone. Capone bounced back to be their #4 runner at the Bowdoin Park Classic, where the Tigers averaged 17:49 on a course that’s considerably slower.
At the Six Flags Wild Safari Invitational, Allentown averaged 16:54.6 while WWP South averaged 16:55.1. The Pirates actually edged the Redbirds in the merged results by just 13 points, 369 to 372. Both teams had some freshmen run very well in the 3200m that day, too.
Hopewell Valley averaged 17:51 at the TCNJ Invitational, but that was without their top runner from last fall, Silas Allevik, who will be making his season debut at Shore Coaches. If Allevik had raced at TCNJ and finished alongside his teammate Finnegan Curley up front, their team average would’ve been 17:09 on a course that was more difficult than Six Flags or Jerry Hart.
Lawrenceville aren’t in the CVC but are definitely in the conversation for the best team in the county. At the Jerry Hart Invitational, they averaged just a half-second slower than Princeton in 16:43, and they actually beat Princeton thanks to a tight 1-5 spread of just 36 seconds.
What’s impressive is that none of these teams have just one or two superstars who are bringing their team’s average way down. Yes, they each have very talented frontrunners, but they each also have at least four boys who have already run 17:17 or better this early in the season.
That’s not to say that these teams are equally deep. WWP North is loaded with scorers and potential scorers – their 4th through 7th finishers at Run the Night all ran between 10:39 and 10:48 for two miles. Lawrenceville also has a fully loaded team, putting five boys at 17:02 or faster at the Jerry Hart Invitational. Princeton and WWP South have small gaps back to their 5th runners, while Allentown and Hopewell Valley have slightly larger gaps – for now.
Dhruva Sribuddharju (Hightstown) finishes just ahead of Nivas Palaniappan (WWP South) in the Varsity A race at the Six Flags Wild Safari Invitational. | Tom Smith for MileSplit
Another team that deserves a mention here is Hightstown. They’re also looking deeper than usual this season, with four boys under 17:30 already. They don’t quite have the same team average or depth as the top six teams, but the Rams could finish right with them with a good day at CVCs.
Given WWP North’s outstanding depth, two formidable frontrunners in Agrim Jha and Paul Wittenberg, and recent history of postseason success, the Knights are probably the team to beat right now. That said, NJ.com currently ranks Princeton at NJ #18, with WWP North and WWP South both “under consideration” just outside the top 20.
But don’t count out any of these schools! Things could change in the next three weeks, but right now all signs are pointing towards an epic clash at the boys CVC Championship.
New year, new faces.
Welcome to the class of 2029! Several of these newcomers are already making major waves in the Mercer County results. Starting high school is always a big adjustment, but these fabulous freshmen are at least adjusting to high school running just fine.
Girls (in alphabetical order)
Kayla Peckens (Princeton Day) climbs a hill near the front of the freshmen race at the Cherokee Challenge. | RunningWorksPics for MileSplit
Anita Bhatia (WWP North) started the season with two straight top-3 finishes. She placed 2nd at Run the Night in 13:09 and then 3rd a week later at the Thompson 2 Miler in 12:59.
Addison Frascella (Allentown) ran very well at the Thompson 2 Miler and claimed 2nd in 12:51. She followed that up with excellent 5K results at the Osprey XC Invitational (19th in 20:06) and the Six Flags Wild Safari Invitational (19th in 20:17).
Carolina Kime (Princeton) has earned some experience on Princeton’s vaunted varsity team by running 20:19 at the Jerry Hart Invitational and then 21:15 at the Bowdoin Classic.
Kayla Peckens (Princeton Day) kicked off the school year with a 5th place finish at the Cherokee Challenge in 12:36, and then she crushed the 20-minute barrier on her first try in the 5K, running 19:45 at the Jerry Hart Invitational.
Cecilia Szostak (WWP South) showed big improvement at the Six Flags Wild Safari Invitational last week, running 12:40 for 6th place in the freshman race.
Boys (in alphabetical order)
Ashvin Avineni (WWP North) sprints to the win in the freshman race of the Thompson 2 Miler. | Jeff Granit for MileSplit
Christopher Argilan (Allentown) may have had a slower start to the season after running 11:40 at the Cherokee Challenge and 11:47 at the Thompson 2 Miler, but he just scorched a 10:26 for 4th place in the freshman race at Six Flags this past weekend.
Ashvin Avineni (WWP North) narrowly missed the win in the freshman race at Run the Night, where he ran 10:27 and was the Knights’ #3 finisher. He did eventually taste victory at the Thompson 2 Miler, where he ran 10:49 to win by 8 seconds.
Declan Curley (Hopewell Valley) won the TCNJ Invitational 3200m in 11:07 and then ran even better on the hilly course at the Thompson Park Class Meet, placing 5th in the freshman two-mile in 11:11. He hasn’t raced an invitational 5K yet, but he could wind up being a key scorer for the Bulldogs.
Aidan Fan (WWP South) also had a breakout race at Six Flags, running 10:32 for 6th place among freshmen. Before that, he got 6th at the Thompson 2 Miler in 11:19.
Reed Huggins (Allentown) opened with very impressive runner-up finishes at the Cherokee Challenge (10:26) and Thompson 2 Miler (10:57). He then stepped up to the 5K and continued finding major success at the Osprey XC Invitational (16:46) and Six Flag Wild Safari (16:47).
Ayush Jain (WWP South) showed massive improvement at Six Flags and finished just a few seconds behind his teammate Fan, getting 8th in 10:38.
The Track Mercer preseason watchlist missed some stars.
If you go back and look at Track Mercer’s preseason watchlists for girls and boys, you’ll notice some glaring omissions.
Stella Blanchard (Wilberforce) competes at the 2024 Meet of Champions. | Tom Smith for MileSplit
The most obvious is Wilberforce junior Stella Blanchard. Last fall, she ran a very good 5K PR of 20:03 on DREAM Park’s fast course, but that was the only time she had ever broken 21:15. She did qualify for the Meet of Champions as the 10th finisher at Non-Public B groups, but she placed just 140th at MoCs. In the spring, she had been focusing on (and excelling at) the 800m, 400m, and even 200m.
Fast forward to this September, and Blanchard opened her junior XC season by dropping an astounding 18:24 5K to tie the old course record at the Jerry Hart Invitational. And then, to prove that she can handle hills too, she ran 19:29 at the Thompson Park Class Meet last week. If she maintains this fitness, she’s going to break whatever the record is for largest year-over-year improvement at the Meet of Champions.
Saboor Qureshi (Princeton) sprints down the homestretch at the Bowdoin XC Classic. | John Nepolitan for RunnerSpace
On the boys side, senior Saboor Qureshi has come out of nowhere to lead a very strong Princeton team. Before last month, Qureshi had never run XC or even a 3200m at any major meet, and his PRs in the 800m and 1600m this past spring were solid but not even top 20 in the county. Now, he’s currently #1 in the county in the 5K, thanks to the 16:06 he ran for 2nd place at the Jerry Hart Invitational. And just last week he ran 17:03 for 29th at the Bowdoin Classic, which is an even more impressive result. Qureshi is certainly making the most of his senior year.