Chloe Taylor came into the Mercer County Cross Country Championships looking to play a supporting role in the pack for the Princeton High girls’ team.

But when PHS senior star Lou Mialhe started to struggle late in the race at Thompson Park in Jamesburg, sophomore Taylor assumed the frontrunner mantle for the Little Tigers.

The willowy Taylor floated past Mialhe and took fifth overall to help PHS take second behind champion WW/P-S.

“Lou didn’t do as well as we hoped,” said Taylor, who clocked a time of 19:41.43 over the 5-kilometer course with Mialhe taking seventh in 19:53.12.

“I just thought if we are going to win we need to get as far up there in the pack as possible. I think I passed her going down the last hill. I like running the downhills.”

Taylor was taken aback by her performance. “I love this course, I am kind of surprised, it is higher up than I expected,” said Taylor.

Working through a physical issue and gaining valuable experience last fall in her freshman campaign, Taylor has been on the way up for the Little Tigers this fall.

“Last year in cross country season I was anemic so I wasn’t running as well,” said Taylor.

“I took iron and that helped. Training with the better girls on the team helped me. Lou has been a great motivation.”

PHS head coach Jim Smirk liked the way his girls stuck together to take second, edging third-place finisher Peddie 101-105 for the runner-up spot.

“We definitely didn’t have our best day but that being said, you saw us run a little bit stronger as a team because of it,” said Smirk.

The Little Tigers did get a strong performance from Taylor. “I think we have gotten used to Lou being out front, she didn’t race as well as she had hoped or we had hoped but then you saw Chloe Taylor say alright look if she is not going to have it, it is her responsibility to take on the mantle of being the No. 1 for the day,” said Smirk.

“She did a phenomenal job with that. She really handles three big moves early in the first two miles. She survived some big attacks and decided now cool, I survived them, and let’s go, let’s race. She put herself in a great position today.”

Junior Annefleur Hartmanshenn produced a great effort as she took 15th in a time of 20:15.44.

“The same can be said of Annefleur, she was our No. 3 today,” said Smirk. “She had been running in the four or five spot all season and she put together a really masterful race. She is a kid who worked her way up through the ranks.”

In Smirk’s view, the team’s constant emphasis on working as a unit came in handy for PHS on Friday.

“We talk a lot about that, times are measured individually but this is a team sport,” said Smirk.

“Our warmups, our training, they are all geared towards team and all season they are geared towards making our best effort. I think you are seeing a lot of that play out. If we take second in the county on a bad day, that is pretty good.”

Smirk is hoping that his team has a better day when it returns to Thompson Park on November 7 to compete in the state sectional meet.

“Going up to Group 4, we are going to have to solve some stuff, there is no question,” said Smirk.

“Group 4 is about consistency, maybe we weren’t as consistent as we needed to be today. We’ll have to work on that but I think one thing that has been consistent about us a long time in our program is that we fight and we are tough and we saw that today. A lot of teams when it doesn’t go well, it goes bad.”

Taylor, for her part, believes that PHS will benefit in the long run from its experience at the county meet.

“We are dealing with injuries and we are trying to get over that,” said Taylor.

“We have time before sectionals so we will try to use this race. Seeing I am up there in the county with some of the girls we are going to be racing again in sectionals gives me confidence.”