MAKING HISTORY: Princeton High boys’ cross country runner Acasio Pinheiro glides to the finish in recent action. Last Saturday, sophomore star Pinheiro placed 10th individually in the state Group 4 championship meet. Pinheiro’s heroics helped PHS take the team title. The Little Tigers are next in action when they compete in the Meet of Champions on November 19 at Holmdel Park. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

As the Princeton High boys’ cross country team toed the starting line at Holmdel Park last Saturday for the Group 4 championship meet, its runners were confident that they had put in the necessary legwork to earn the program’s first state crown since 1986.

“This is not a one season thing, getting to this point,” said PHS head coach Jim Smirk.

“It has been about building this team to this moment. It started when Alex Roth came in as a freshman; we knew he was talented. At that point it was about how do we give him a great opportunity for success. Once we started to see him move forward, then it was how do we build a team around him and we started adding these pieces in.”

The pieces fell into place for PHS as it pulled away to victory at the meet, scoring 69 points with Cherokee second at 135 and Montgomery third with 139.

Senior star Alex Roth set the pace for the Little Tigers, finishing second individually with a time of 15:57 over the 5,000-meter course. Junior Will Hare took sixth in 16:09 with sophomore Acasio Pinheiro coming in 10th at 16:23, junior Jackson Donahue finishing 28th in 16:55, with Alex Ackerman coming in 40th with a time of 17:02.

“We had a race plan going in and the race didn’t really go out the way we expected it to,” said Smirk.

“We expected a little more aggressive race, it went out really tactical and that is something we really haven’t seen this season. The athletes made a great adjustment. Coming off the mile mark, they really consolidated themselves, checked in with each other and made some good moves. With a mile and a quarter left, we really took over the race. When we saw opportunities to make good moves, we took them every time and that is something we have been working on a lot.”

Roth made the right moves at the front of the pack, weathering a number of surges to finish 10 seconds behind individual champion Rey Rivera of Old Bridge High.

“We took the specific race plan off for him, we said you are a veteran you know a bunch of ways to run successfully; you use the one that you are going to use, it is your decision,” recalled Smirk.

“We let him loose; I thought he executed to perfection. Whenever Rey took a surge, he responded. It was like two different races. The first half was real tactical and packed and real nitty gritty and the second half was all about guts and speed. Rey Rivera attacked in the bowl, the hardest part of the course, and he throws a huge surge in and the only person who responded was Alex. He was the only one who could stay engaged and really run.”

As usual, Hare ran well with Roth at the front of the pack. “Will has trained with Alex for two years non stop and I think you saw that when the race got really fast at the end,” said Smirk.

“Will was really able to bear down and know exactly how to handle it. It was — I have been here before, this is my teammate.”

Pinheiro handled himself like a veteran as he made the top 10. “Acasio is super knowledgeable on that course; he has been on that course a bunch,” said Smirk.

“We were doing the race plan and when I got to him, it was just run your race buddy, don’t worry about this, we have got you on either side. Alex and Will can take care of up front and we have got the  4-5-6-7 guys at the back that are going to run great. All you need to do is run your race. With about a mile left, he had a really nice opportunity to break into the top 10. We let him know that and he took absolute advantage of it. He had a great race.”

Donahue had a great day behind the PHS’s big three. “Jackson had a huge PR on the course,” said Smirk. “It has been all season with him, fix this little thing, learn this little thing, and apply this little thing. Every practice, every race and even on off days, he is doing the right stuff. You take care of all of the little things and it paid off for him in states.”

Smirk, for his part, believes the team’s hard work will pay off as it makes a return trip to the Meet of Champions (MOC) this Saturday at Holmdel Park.

“I think getting out to the MOC last year, we had that moment where wait a minute we can hang here; we are good enough to be here but we were inconsistent,” said Smirk.

“When we sat down to our team meeting in June and the calendar went up, there was no question which weeks were most important. We ranked them in order of importance and MOC is right up there with groups and regionals; that makes sense since it is right at the end of our season. We are gearing up to run great and that is what we want to do.”