FAST COMPANY: Members of the Princeton High girls’ cross country team show off the medals they earned for placing second in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) Meet of Champions last Saturday at Holmdel Park. It marked the highest-ever finish for the program at the meet.

By Justin Feil

Grace Hegedus has been bursting from the starting line over the past two seasons for the Princeton High girls’ cross country team.

The sophomore set the tone for a team on the rise last year in her first varsity season, and this year she continued to do so as the deeper Tiger squad reached heights unseen.

Hegedus helped pace PHS to second in the team standings at the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) Meet of Champions last Saturday at Holmdel Park. The Tigers had never placed better than fifth in girls program history, and that came more than 20 years ago.

“It felt really exciting,” said Hegedus, who finished 26th individually in 19:31. “We worked really hard for this moment all throughout summer and it’s just amazing to see all that work paid off. It shows our team is greater than we ever thought.”

Each of the Tigers’ top seven was important to their runner-up finish behind three-time champion Union Catholic, who prevailed with 80 points. PHS scored 101, well ahead of third-place Colts Neck’s 130 points.

“I’m thrilled,” said PHS head coach Jim Smirk. “We had this great race of sectionals, and we kind of took a little mini step backwards last week. And the whole week was talking about, here’s the things we need to do to put ourselves in a better position. And I think we did that. I think we ran absolutely brilliantly. I think five out of seven had PRs on the course.”

Junior Kajol Karra set a school record on the Holmdel course of 19:03 while placing 12th and Hegedus was less than 30 seconds behind.

“Kajol going 19:03, setting a new school record, running that course as effectively as they did is huge for us,” said Smirk. “And Grace was saying, ‘I thought I had a better race in me,’ but absolutely took control of the race early and forcing an entire field to react to her at some level is pretty impressive, and just an amazing building block for what’s next for them.”

Sophomore Eowyn Deess took 39th in 19:49, a best for her on the course. Freshman Rosemary Warren ran a course PR of 20:04 for 58th in her first MOC. Sophomore Phoenix Roth was also in her first MOC for cross country and ran 20:09 for 64th. Freshman Sevanne Knoch, another first-time MOC competitor for PHS, also lowered her course PR, to 20:33 for 89th place. Senior Rica Eleches-Lipsitz was 120th in 21:08.

“We had a little hiccup this week,” said Smirk. “Rica was feeling under the weather and was a last-minute go. Eowyn ran another PR on that course, Rosemary stepping up after a tough week last week and leaning in and I think she ran only two seconds slower at Holmdel than she did it at Thompson (Park). You have performances like that. So I’m really happy.”

It just took some belief from the Tigers, who won their first Group 4 title the week before at Holmdel. Hegedus has helped to instill confidence with her bold starts and has motivated the team to push their boundaries.

“In a lot of ways she has her thumbprint of all over our team,” said Smirk. “The commitment to racing hard right from the gun, setting up your teammates, not quitting when it’s tough, attacking the hardest parts of the courses. That is built into who we are and our team has benefited tremendously from that and she has done that week in and week out, often putting herself maybe not necessarily in the perfect position for her own individual performance, but the perfect position for our team performance. I can’t speak highly enough of Grace in terms of the success we’ve had this year.”

Hegedus jumped onto the scene last year. She was the top runner as a freshman and gave PHS a perfect starting point in building a young group. She was confident that this season would be even stronger.

“I thought we were going to be better than last year because we have new teammates coming in from the middle school and we had people just working hard throughout the summer, so it was going to be better than last year,” said Hegedus. “And I think it showed that we did. But I think our bonds really connected us to work together and it was just awesome to see.”

Hegedus has come back this year with more experience and remained a top performer. She has consistently given the Tigers a dynamic one-two punch along with Karra. In the first mile Saturday, she was part of a pack that was chasing the top six overall girls.

“I think I was a little less nervous because I understood that it was a tough race and I lived that before, so I just needed to do my best and push harder even if it was tough,” said Hegedus. “I think I placed better and passed a lot more people than last year because last year I was like 44th and then this year I got 26. I’m also stronger, I think, because of my training. And so is our team.”

The team started to come together over the summer. The incoming freshmen and new runners like Roth worked alongside the returning runners. They ran plenty of miles together as part of their training program.

“It was a lot of work, but I think it was really worth it,” said Hegedus. “I think part of it is you need to enjoy running and that makes it more fun and better because you like the sport better. It makes you want to go. It makes you encouraged to go and enjoy a run, and that caused a good product this week and this competition season and it really shows.”

PHS continued to build confidence through the season with strong showings at big meets like the Bowdoin XC Classic, the Shore Coaches Invitational, and Manhattan Invitational. Their experience together grew to put themselves in position for their highest finish in girls history.

“It proves that if you commit to the people you’ve got and you give them opportunity to find success, that there’s a lot of opportunity there,” said Smirk. “And I think that’s what we showed. We have some new bodies on the team, and some new athletes on the team with Phoenix coming over from track and a couple of freshmen. But the reality is these are people who are involved in our program and we invested in them and they invested in each other. And this is kind of the end result.”

The training came to fruition over the final month of the season. Against the toughest competition, the Tigers had the fitness to compete for the top spot in every race. They captured the sectional and group titles, and looked at the MOC as an opportunity to improve on their group win.

“Just like working harder in the middle, it’s really easy to mentally be unfocused in the middle of the race because you’re so tired, but you really have to focus to try to pass people,” said Hegedus. “And I think we all did a great job on that and using the hills because it’s a very hilly course.”

On Saturday, Hegedus went after the hills from the start. She was just outside the top 15 as the field quickly left the start area for the meandering paths up into the hills of the course.

“You’re supposed to start out strong, but you have to save your energy because it’s a long race,” said Hegedus. “Going out strong in this race was a key thing because there were a lot of people and it goes into a thin path so it’s important to go ahead and find your place for the team. And in groups, the other teams’ strategy was to follow us and beat us at the end, but since we started so strong, I think Smirk was happy that I started so strong because it followed through the race and I think gave us that win.”

Hegedus has been a strong front-runner through her first two years. She has continued to drop her times while being a key example to her less experienced teammates.

“She doesn’t really put that out there that she’s that influential,” said Smirk. “But from our side as coaches and being able to see the decision she makes, it’s just been nothing but absolute commitment to working towards perfecting her craft. And that makes us a better team.”

Hegedus has been faster across the board this year. She has lowered her times 30-plus seconds on most courses from a year ago and been more consistent. She posted an 18:49 run at sectionals at Thompson Park this year after running 19:38 there last year at the Mercer County Championships. She has gotten more serious about running in the last two years after starting with the middle school in sixth grade and doing the Girls on the Run program.

“I just did it for fun because I just liked the people and it was just a good environment,” said Hegedus. “And now in the start of freshman year I started working harder because I wanted to be better, and I think the work paid off and it’s just fun and exciting to see that you’re capable of doing something.”

Success came quickly to her last year. She was third in Princeton’s race at the Shore Coaches Invitational, second at the XC Fall Classic, and sixth at the county championship meet.

“I think I was really surprised,” said Hegedus. “I think I did good. I got somewhere near the top in the county for cross country and that was really exciting. I had amazing teammates to support me through it all and it was just great to see it and I’m really excited that I’m able to do these things and work with my teammates and accomplish so much.”

This year has been even more exciting for her because the team success has followed at an even higher level. Eleches-Lipsitz is the only senior in PHS’ top seven, and the future looks bright.

“The big thing is, can we take the lessons we learned this year about caring about each other, finding joy in hard work and commitment and seeing ourselves through the entire season,” said Smirk. “If we can take those lessons and build on them, then I think we’ll be where we are now and have a shot at maybe the next step, which would be challenging for that top spot at Meet of Champions.”

The Tigers aren’t done yet this year. They will compete on Saturday in the Nike Cross Nationals Northeast Regional meet.

“If we race this way next weekend, it could be an interesting race for sure, because there’s going to be a lot of teams in there and who knows how it shakes out?” said Smirk. “We’ll give ourselves a shot.”

Hegedus will be out fast to set the pace. And this year, there has been a stronger group around her to represent PHS well in the biggest races of the season. That point was reinforced as the Tigers put it all together for a historic finish at the Meet of Champions.

“It shows how the hard work paid off, and we all love each other and I think we’re working together as a team to show how cross country is actually a team sport and it’s not just individual,” said Hegedus. “It’s the team, and the team aspect is the best part.”