MAKING STRIDES: Princeton High boys’ cross country runner Alex Roth heads to the finish line last Friday at the Mercer County Cross Country Championships. Junior star Roth took third individually to help PHS finish a strong second, just three points (74-77) behind champion Robbinsville. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

In 2014, Alex Roth couldn’t run in the Mercer County Cross Country Championships due to injury.

Last Friday, Princeton High boys’ junior star Roth was thrilled to toe the starting line at this year’s county meet.

“It is a great environment,” said Roth. “It was super cool to run with all of these competitive teams and competitive guys. It was great experience.”

Roth proved to be one of the top competitors on the course at Thompson Park in Jamesburg, taking third individually to help PHS finish a strong second, just three points (74-77) behind champion Robbinsville.

Coming into the race, Roth was focused on going after WW/P-S senior star Tim Bason, who ended up taking first.

“I wasn’t really worrying about time; I was trying to get in the mix to get a top position,” said Roth, who covered the course in 15:59.61. “I basically went out and just tried to hang with Tim Bason and just tried to go with it after that in the second half.”

Roth hung with Bason for about half of the race before getting edged  by 1.40 for second place by Zach Michon of Robbinsville down the final straightaway.

“I thought it was a good race; I felt confident,” said Roth. “The Robbinsville guy got me at the end but I felt like I ran the race I was looking for.”

While PHS entered the day looking for the team title, Roth saw the second-place finish as a positive.

“We were hoping to come in and win it,” said Roth. “Robbinsville brought their A-game so it doesn’t always work out perfectly. We definitely ran well as a team and we can move forward going into sectionals.”

Roth, who also stars for the PHS track team, feels he is moving forward individually.

“I have had overall improvement in terms of getting stronger as a runner,” said Roth. “During track, we worked a lot on strength-based and speed-based stuff. It definitely helped me a lot this year.”

PHS head coach Mark Shelley liked the way his team showed overall improvement even as it fell just short of the title.

“On the one hand, there is the disappointment, the guys feel it,” said Shelley, noting that his team edged perennial champion WW/P-S by 13 points (77-90) to earn the runner-up spot.

“But at the same time when we look at where we were a few years ago or when we look at last year, we were a distant fifth 129 points out, I am real proud of them. We focus on what we call process and to me in the grand scheme of life, this is another step.”

Topping WW/P-S a week earlier in CVC competition was a key step for PHS, according to Shelley.

“We beat South last week at the divisional meet,” said Shelley. “It was just a huge mental barrier for us and I feel like that gave us a good springboard. We knew it was going to be a very tough race today with three teams.”

Shelley was looking for Roth to show more competitive toughness in the county meet.

“Alex has the physical tools, we got to make sure that we add that mental tiger mentality to it,” said Shelley.

“We have been focusing on that in workouts. When you don’t feel your best you still have to gut it out and that is what he did today. We were talking to him about being willing to go out with Tim Bason to put distance between himself and other kids who might hang around. We really talked to him about the need to string out the race, not just for him but for his teammates. We didn’t want to get caught in a kicker’s race at the end with this huge pack, and he strung it out.”

Sophomore Will Hare showed some major progress in the county race, taking 11th in a time of 16:27.67.

“Will is tremendous, he did exactly what he wanted to do,” said Shelley, who also liked what sophomore Alex Ackerman and senior Jeremy Taylor did on Friday as they placed 14th and 20th, respectively.

“He is a talkative, fun-loving kid and I think that helps his running. He never gets too worked up. He is calm, he is relaxed. He has taken steps. He was second here in the freshman race last year and really blossomed towards the end of spring track. He ran a lot of miles over the summer. At the beginning of the year, he was our third or fourth runner and now he is clearly our No. 2. He is just really, really stellar.”

The Little Tigers will have to be stellar in order to make it out of the state sectional meet, which is slated for November 7 at Thompson Park.

“Our sectional is insane, of the top 20 teams in the state in all classifications, five are in our sectional,” said Shelley.

“It is Old Bridge, South Brunswick, Hunterdon Central, South, and us. To me, the biggest negative as a coach, if I knew I could win the sectional, I would probably run it just to qualify because then you can really taper for the state meet and hone in. You can’t do that, we have to be sharp if we want to be in the top five.”

Based on the team’s progress over the last few weeks, Shelley expects his runners to be sharp when they return to Thompson Park.

“There is a lot more confidence about the sectional, when you beat South twice, that is one big step for our program,” said Shelley.

“We know they are good and will still be good next year but it is nice to take that step. We are thinking we have a shot to not just be barely fifth but to be second or third or whatever depending on how everybody else chooses to run it.”

Roth, for his part, believes PHS has a shot to do some big things. “I feel like we have some work to do,” said Roth. “If we can pull it together, we can make it out and hopefully make it out of the groups as well.”