FANTASTIC FINISH: Members of the Princeton High boys’ track squad celebrate after winning the team title at the Central Group 4 indoor sectional meet at the Bennett Center in Toms River last Sunday. Trailing Hunterdon Central 41-22 entering the final two events, PHS rallied to pull out the title, paced by a 1-2-3 finish in the 3,200 from senior Alex Roth, junior Will Hare, and junior Alex Ackerman. It was the program’s first-ever indoor sectional crown at the Group 4 level.

On Sunday night, the New England Patriots produced a miraculous comeback in Super Bowl LI, rallying from a 25-point deficit to pull out a 34-28 victory in overtime.

Earlier in the day, the Princeton High boys’ track team came up with a miracle of its own in winning the Central Group 4 indoor sectional meet at the Bennett Center in Toms River.

Heading into the final two events of the meet, PHS appeared to be out of the running for the title as it trailed Hunterdon Central 41-22.

Stunningly, the track gods smiled on the Little Tigers. First, PHS got a 1-2-3 finish in the 3,200 from senior Alex Roth, junior Will Hare, and junior Alex Ackerman to pile up 24 points and take the lead. Then in the last event, the 4×400, the top-seeded Hunterdon Central quartet had a false start to end up getting disqualified.

“I don’t think any of us could have predicted how this was going to go,” said PHS boys’ head coach Ben Samara, whose team ended with 46 points to edge runner-up Franklin (44) and third place Hunterdon Central (41). “It is the wildest ending I have ever seen.”

Samara credited Ackerman with over performing in getting third in the 3,200 as he clocked a time of  9:47.62.

“What Alex Ackerman did to get up into third place was herculean,” said Samara.

“We thought maybe Alex and Will had a good chance to go 1-2 and maybe we would get 18 or 19 if Ackerman squeezed into the sixth spot. I am speechless about that race and what he did. Most of the time we say if Ackerman can take sixth place, we will be in this thing. This time we said I guess we are done because we would need to go 1-2-3 and he was like OK. He went out and just got third. He does whatever we need him to do. Most of the time, it has been a sixth place but today it was a third and he went out and got it. He beat a lot of really good guys, guys who beat him last weekend in the county meet. It was incredible.”

The incredible duo of Roth and Hare continued to set the pace for the Little Tigers. Senior star and Penn-bound Roth placed second in the 1,600 in 4:22.56, getting edged at the tape by seven-hundredths of a second by Billy Hill of Franklin Township and cruised to victory in the 3,200 with a time of 9:31.60. Junior standout Hare, for his part, was fourth in the 1,600 in 4:27.46 and second in the 3,200 in 9:39.43.

“Alex Roth was far and away the best two miler in the field today,” said Samara.

“It just shows his development and Will Hare’s development over the last few years. They just broke away from that pack. For Alex to bounce back and get first in the 2-mile after another tough fight in the mile was great. To be out leaned like that is a heartbreaking thing when every point counts. He is just a workhorse, he comes back and does his job. He and Will knew exactly what they needed to do and they went out and did it. Will did exactly what we expected him to do in the mile and 2-mile today and Alex pretty much the same thing except for getting out leaned. The stat is that between Roth, Hare, and Ackerman over three-quarters of our points today came from those three guys.”

Freshman Simon Schenk picked up valuable points, placing second in the pole vault.

“He is at 13’ 0 now; it ties our school indoor record and he is a freshman,” saids Samara, who also got a fifth place finish in the shot put from sophomore Paul Brennan.

“They got him on some new poles and he is just increasing his speed and getting more and more comfortable with these new poles. He is going up, up, up. I think the last three weeks, it is six inches, six inches, and six inches.”

Samara had the sense that his athletes were up for a big meet in the wake of finishing a close second in Mercer County Indoor boys’ track meet on January 29.

“We had our team meeting on Friday and I have never seen them look more focused than they were,” said Samara.

“They really wanted redemption from last weekend; they were really locked in.”

While PHS was thrilled to win the North 2 Group 3 indoor sectional last year, the victory on Sunday had a special meaning.

“They were thrilled,” said Samara. “To be the smallest school in Central Jersey Group 4, which we are, and for it to be our first year there and come out with a title is really special to the guys. To win this section is a huge honor, it is that much more special to have won it against these huge schools and really good teams.”