SETTING THE PACE: Princeton Day School star runner Emily McCann competes in a cross country race during her stellar Panther career. The recently graduated McCann, a Northeastern University track and cross country commit, has been a driving force for the fledging PDS track program as it has grown by leaps and bounds over the last four seasons. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

From its humble start in 2021 as a club program with about 20 athletes that competed in some varsity meets, the Princeton Day School track and field squad has certainly picked up the pace.

This spring, the PDS varsity track team saw its roster swell to 50 with the Panthers finishing third in both the boys’ and girls’ team standings in the Prep B state championship meet. At the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) Non-Public Group B championships, the PDS boys and girls each finished 10th in the team standings. The Panthers also sent two girls’ relay quartets to the Penn Relays.

“It had gone from being a fledgling, modest program to being the most popular program in the school,” said PDS head coach Mark Adams, who helped start the program with John Woodside, before he retired after the 2021 season. “We had 51 kids this spring and close to 60 in the middle school. Everybody has recognized that the track program is undeniable and that it is really popular.”

In getting up to speed as the program started, Adams had to overcome the hurdle of not having a track on campus.

“Everybody wanted a track from day one — I said we are going to do it the other way around,” said Adams. “It is not build it and they will come like the Field of Dreams. It is we will build a program and then the track will come. That has been my stand all along. Right now we are exploring all of the necessary elements involved in building a track.”

In the meantime, the PDS athletes and coaches have gotten the most of the facilities they do have on campus.

“We first started at Krueger Field; we would get the wheel out and mark it and would practice there quite a bit,” said Adams. “Once the field house at the Athletic Center was finished, that became the home base to start every day. We do our warm up there and then everyone launches out to their different sites. We do most of our practice outside now at the Pagoda Field.”

In order to supplement that training, PDS has headed across town a few days a week.

“We arranged to practice three mornings a week before school at Hun,” said Adams. “We don’t get everybody there — we rotate the event groups through. I am there every one of the mornings, and then I have my different event coaches come and work there as well. It is really challenging for some of the kids but we made it work.”

In reflecting on the growth of the program, Adams credits a quartet of seniors with exerting a major influence.

“Harleen [Sandhu], Emily [McCann], Arun [Patel], and Tyler [Olmstead] were at the forefront,” said Adams. “They have pushed and have been very instrumental in making it happen. Those kids are all very dedicated to the team and to track.”

An infusion of young talent was instrumental to the team’s success this spring.

“Now the kids know that the program is there, it has added to the numbers in middle school,” said Adams. “The big change this year was that we had 23 freshmen in the program. The influx of freshmen and the energy behind all of it has been really, really great.”

The energy paid off in the Prep B championship meet in late May at Newark Academy.

“The really big step this year has been with the boys,” asserted Adams. “The girls were fourth last year but the boys were barely scoring points in previous years. Across the board, the boys have really just taken huge steps.”

The Panther boys made a huge impact in the field events in the Prep B competition. Freshman Avery Hall took first in the high jump with junior Adam Stewart taking second. In the long jump, Abdoulaye Seydi placed fifth with Stewart coming in fifth. Stewart also took fifth in the triple jump with freshman Brady DeCore taking eighth. In the throws, junior Marc Nahas placed eighth in the shot put with Olmstead coming in sixth in the javelin and 11th in the discus. Freshman Onyx Oschwald placed fifth in the javelin and freshman Cy Cooper finished eighth in the javelin.

“For the boys, it is great that we have as many jumpers as we do,” said Adams. “We had three kids who all jumped 5’8 this year in Adam, Avery, and Onyx, which is a good start. We had good long and triple jumping between Adam and Abdoulaye. Brady has been a really nice addition as well. Tyler has been with the program from the start. He was pretty much our lone contributor up until this year for points in the boys’ throws. Cy and Onyx started contributing in the javelin. Those kids did a great job.”

A pair of freshmen, Nathan Bennett and Edward Letko, set the pace on the track at the Prep B meet as Bennett took first in the 400 meters and third in the 100 while Letko placed third in the 1,600.

“Nathan was the ninth-ranked freshman in the state in the 400 coming into the Meet of Champions, he has been amazing,” said Adams. “Nathan won the Rookie of the Year for PDS. Eddie has been fantastic too.”

Senior Tom Poljevka showed his versatility at the Prep B meet, taking third the 400 hurdles and fifth in the 110 hurdles. At the Non-Public state meet, he took sixth in the 110 hurdles and helped the 4×800 relay place fourth.

“Another one who was really strong for the boys was Tom Poljevka,” said Adams. “Tom did cross country in the fall. He ran the hurdles at the state meet and the 4×800. He just wanted to support the guys so he agreed to run the 4×8, which was right between the prelim and the final in the hurdles. He is a such a great kid — he is one of our team leaders. He ended up coming in sixth in states, .14 of a second off his previous PR. The kid was amazing.”

As for the girls, distance running star McCann has been the pace setter. She took first in the 800 and third in the 3,200 in the Prep B meet and finished second in the 1,600 in the Non-Public meet.
“Emily set a standard, which was really, really high,” said Adams of McCann, a Northeastern University track and cross country commit. “At some point, she had the school records in the 400, the 800, the 1,600, and 3,200. Emily has just been a standout for us. From 400 meters to the 3,200, she was our top runner. She is a fierce competitor. She ran at the Nike nationals out in Eugene, qualifying in the 1,600.”

Sandhu, for her part, showed her completive fire, taking second in the 3,200 in both the Prep B and Non-Public meets. She finished her PDS career by taking 12th in the 3,200 at the NJSIAA Meet of Champions in 11:03.63.

“Harleen has always been there. She really had a great senior year, I was really happy for her,” said Adams, who also got good work in the middle distance events from freshman Sophia Vriesendorp, the second-place finisher in the 400 at the Prep B competition. “She ran that 11 at the Meet of Champions, she did amazingly well. I am very proud of her.”

Junior Sophia Zhou did well this spring. “Sophia was obviously a standout for us,” said Adams.”Sophia ran in both the 4×100 and the 4×400 relays at the Penn Relays and is a hurdler. She has just been stepping into everything and is so dedicated and works hard.”

Junior Makena Graham and sophomore Zuri Graham led the Panther sprints crew. Makena took third in the 100 and fifth in the 200 at the Prep B meet while Zuri placed fifth in the 100 hurdles.
“Makena was our top sprinter and her sister Zuri was our next best,” said Adams. “Zuri ended up being on our relays at the end of the year and made it to finals in the 110 hurdles.”

Sophomore Kara Vandal displayed her amazing versatility in the jumps at the Prep B meet, taking third in the pole vault, fourth in the long jump, fifth in the triple jump, and ninth in the high jump.

“Kara went from the pole vault to high jump, back and forth,” said Adams. “Then she went from triple to long. She was totally gassed at Preps.”

The squad’s depth was reflected in the progress it made in relay events. On the girls’ side, the relay stalwarts included the Graham sisters, Vriesendorp, Zhou, sophomore Kendra Daley, freshman Emily Zhang, freshman Charlotte Wu, and sophomore Anna Burke. As for the boys, Cooper, Nahas, Oschwald, Hall, DeCore, Letko, Bennett, and Seydi excelled in the relay events.

“Our relay teams did well all season long; our 4×100 kept getting better and better as we went through the season,” said Adams. “The shuttle hurdles relay is a really fun race, it was neat for the girls to win both of those at the Prep and Mercer Relays.”

Competing in the Colonial Valley Conference this spring also helped PDS get better.

“This year was our first year in the CVC and we are getting used what the CVC has to offer and giving our kids lots of opportunities for meets,” said Adams. “The kids did great. One of the things I was most proud of was how the kids handled those meets.”

Looking ahead, Adams is expecting some great things as the program continues to grow.

“When you look at it, the boys are very deep, that is great,” said Adams, who plans to give his athletes more opportunities to compete at indoor meets this winter. “I would like to get the depth there for the girls. For the girls, we are going to try to get some more girls into the field events so it is not all Kara.”