By Justin Feil

Phoenix Roth is in her first year running cross country for the Princeton High girls’ squad.

It’s the fulfillment of a promise the Tiger sophomore made to her older sister, Robin, last spring during track season.

“I told her that if I qualify for nationals, I would do cross country,” said Roth. “It was like a joke because I didn’t think it was going to happen. And then it did.”

Roth, who qualified for outdoor nationals in the 3,200 meters in her first year of track and field last spring, wasn’t sure exactly how cross country could go, but she also saw an opportunity to be a part of a special team. Roth’s addition has helped the Tigers by adding even more depth to a squad that was already strong, albeit young.

Roth was the second finisher for PHS, coming in 12th overall in 20:33 over the 5,000-meter course as the Tigers won the Girls Varsity B race at the Shore Coaches Invitational last Saturday at Holmdel Park.

“We were a little surprised to win it because Ridgewood was in our race, and they were ranked higher than us,” said Roth.

Sophomore Grace Hegedus led the Tigers, taking third overall in 19:27, freshmen Rosemary Warren and Sevanne Knoch were 16th and 17th in 20:39 and 20:49 respectively, and sophomore Eowyn Deess ran 20:55 to finish 19th as their top five all placed in the top 20. Their 67 team points was well ahead of the 100 posted by Ridgewood, which ran shorthanded and had just five finishers. PHS, though, ran without Hegedus’ running mate, junior Kajol Karra who was taking the SATs, but highlighted their depth. PHS’ lone senior, Rica Eleches-Lipsitz, was 23rd in 20:57 and Mila Trkov took 40th in 22:02 to round out their top seven Saturday.

“We’ve always considered Shore Coaches kind of like our midterm,” said PHS coach Jim Smirk. “We wanted to see us executing our race plan components. I think that’s a big boost for us.”

It was a step forward for the Tigers, who were third in their division the week before at the Bowdoin Cross Country Classic behind powerhouses Union Catholic and Saratoga Springs. The PHS runners felt they didn’t get a good enough start at Bowdoin, and that prompted a stronger approach Saturday.

“The first kilometer it took us a little bit to get our nerves out so we really focused on putting ourselves in a better position right out of the gate,” said Smirk. “And then just executing real kind of straightforward tasks, being in the right spot during the race and as opportunities presented themselves, taking them. Obviously Grace having a great race out front and then the depth of our team really coming around was pretty important. Getting five in under 21 minutes at this point in the season, it’s a good place to be.”

Roth is taking lessons from each race as she adjusts to running cross country for the first time. She played soccer last fall for PHS, even scoring three goals on the year, and she still plays club soccer. But she has followed two of her older siblings — her brother Alex who ran at Penn and Robin who runs at Rutgers — into running cross country.

“It was definitely a really, really hard decision picking cross country this fall,” said Roth. “I’ve played soccer since I was three. It’s always been my everything and I just thought that’s what I was going to be doing as long as I could.”

Then came a breakout spring track and field season in which Roth ran 11:26.46 for the 3,200 meters, and clocked 5:14.57 in the 1,600 meters, her main event. She ran at the New Balance Nationals Outdoor championships and upped her training over the summer. Her mileage made its biggest jump in August and remained high through September. Increasing the distance she can run was just one change. It’s too early to know if she’ll follow her siblings into college running, but she has heeded their advice.

“They just told me to be patient and trust the process and that I’ll figure it out and then it’ll come together,” said Roth.

She has made an immediate impact, even though her competitive side wishes she was running even faster. She has been adjusting to the nuances of cross country, particularly the mental demands required to compete start to finish and the barrage of decisions that have to be made through each race.

“I thought that it was just all going to come together right away, but it’s definitely not a sport that you can just pick up right away and it’s all going to click,” said Roth. “It definitely takes time because obviously it’s still running, but it’s not the same as track at all. There’s so many more layers to it. It definitely takes time to sort of figure it out and how to race and everything. Also in cross country their races are so much bigger. In track there’s like 10 people in the race, but in cross country there’s hundreds and that’s just another thing you have to figure out how to navigate.”

Roth had some familiarity with the famed Holmdel course, but she’d never raced it until Saturday.

“I actually enjoyed the course a little bit more than I thought I would,” said Roth. “I really liked the roller coasters. The first hill kind of stinks because everybody’s going out so fast and trying to get good position, but it’s up a hill so it sends you into a bit of pain for the rest of the race. But I’ve kind of seen the course before because of my siblings. I’ve been to Holmdel since I was young. I’ve run up ‘The Bowl’ before, but I didn’t really know all the ins and outs of the course. And I think just having this experience will be really helpful later in the season. And also a lot of my teammates were in the same boat as me since we have two freshmen also in our top five.”

Roth got out Saturday better than she had at Bowdoin. She was able to execute her race plan to give PHS two finishers in the top 15.

“I wanted to get out a little bit harder, but I also didn’t really know what to expect going into this race, since I’ve been kind of sick this week,” said Roth. “I was just hoping that I was going to get through it. I didn’t really have that high of expectations, but I just kind of wanted to put together the best race that I had that day. I’d say I was decently happy with it.”

PHS is happy to have her on the cross country team for the first time. Roth was hopeful she could help right away, but didn’t know how her track prowess would translate to cross country. She is more of a miler than a two-miler in track. She’s fit right in.

“Coming out of track, Phoenix wanted a little bit different athletic experience,” said Smirk. “So she gave us a shot and certainly we’re thrilled that she’s given us an opportunity to show that we provide a great atmosphere for success. She seems to be leaning fully in, which is great.”

Roth wasn’t the only newcomer to have a strong showing Saturday in their first trip to Holmdel, the site of the New Jersey’s group and state championship meets. The next two finishers were freshmen Warren and Knoch. They have been important additions to building a PHS pack behind Hegedus and Karra as the team develops into a formidable contender at the state level.

“They’re kind of stealing races left and right, which is fun to watch,” said Smirk of the top two. “Obviously they drive that conversation first up front and then this just very strongly balanced and developing next group back that is really kind of filled with a bunch of, what for a lot of teams would be like their number No. 2 or 3 runners, they’re all there working together, really in a lot of ways being driven by Rica as the senior. They’re taking care of business on the back there and helping everybody take really good risks and I think all those pieces together are going to be fundamental to our success.”

PHS will split its squad this coming weekend. The Tigers will race many of their less experienced runners in the Fall XC Classic at Thompson Park in Jamesburg and some of their more veteran runners will compete at the Manhattan College Invitational at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, N.Y. The races give more of the PHS runners a chance to compete, and the races have been avenues to competing for spots in the varsity top seven.

“A big part of our success is we’re really deep and we’ve got a lot of a lot of girls who are hungry to get race opportunities,” said Smirk. “So there’s a lot driving that team component and everybody looking to contribute. We’ll have a nice weekend, and then from there on out we’ll be gearing up for counties and then championship season. So we still have a lot to learn, a lot of training to do, but we’re excited for sure.”

The Shore Coaches gave PHS a lot of confidence at the midpoint. It’s the first season for Roth, who is targeting some big goals over the second half of the season after getting a taste of her new sport through the first six weeks of the season. She has enjoyed the cross country races and seeing where Princeton stacks up.

“I didn’t really know what to expect,” said Roth. “I would say I want to go under 20:00 at Holmdel though because Robin never did. That’s probably one of my goals and I also just want to go as far as we can as a team because this is going to be a really good year for us I think. I didn’t quite know where we’d be before the season, but now, after we beat Ridgewood, I definitely have one of our goals as a team to win the Group 4 championship.”