On paper, Ben Samara figured that the Mercer County Indoor boys’ track meet last Sunday would come down to a three-horse race between his Princeton High squad along with Trenton and Nottingham.

But with several PHS athletes under the weather, it couldn’t keep up with an inspired Trenton team as the Tornadoes picked up 62 points to take first with the Little Tigers scoring 54 to come in second among the 16 teams that competed on the boys’ side.

“It didn’t end well for us we had a lot of guys sick and we weren’t quite there and Trenton over performed,” lamented PHS boys’ head coach Samara.

The Little Tigers got great performances from its two top distance stars, senior Alex Roth and junior Will Hare.

“Alex Roth was incredible, as usual; he won the 2-mile and finished third in a really tough mile,” said Samara of the Penn-bound Roth, who clocked a time of 9:23.40 in winning the 3,200 and came in at 4:20.13 in the 1,600.

“If you blinked, you would have thought that it was the 800, not the mile. They went out so fast; he hung with them and finished third. Will Hare was right behind him. He finished one place behind him in the mile and then finished third in the two-mile. We thought we were totally out of the meet at the end and those two-mile guys brought us back into it with a 1-3-6 (junior Alex Ackerman placed sixth) and scored 17 points.”

Two of the team’s younger athletes, sophomore Paul Brennan and freshman Simon Schenk, came up big.

“Off the track, we had two county champions,” said Samara. “We had Paul in the shot, he threw 51’2, a personal record, that was huge. Our pole vaulter, Simon Schenk won the county title; he PR’d with a 12’6.”

In the end, the ailing PHS boys’ squad ran out of gas despite its best efforts. “We lost out on some points in the 800 because of illness,” said Samara, who got a good day from junior star Acasio Pinheiro as he took sixth in the 1,600 and seventh in the 800.

“In the 4×400, we were just throwing guys out there. We doubled Alex Roth and put him in the 4×400 just trying to get any points that we could. We were just decimated by the end of the meet. We gave it a good go.”

On the girls’ side, the Little Tigers enjoyed some good moments as they took sixth of 15 schools in the team standings with Allentown placing first.

“Jackie Patterson is the reigning outdoor county champion in the 400 but she ended up finishing second to the girl she beat last year,” said Samara. “The girls 4×400 did the same thing, taking second to Lawrenceville.”

A trio of seniors, Annie Walker, Noa Levy, and Alex Bell, came up with some stellar efforts.

“Annie Walker placed in the 800, she was 4th with 2:26.4 so she looked pretty good fighting through sickness,” said Samara.

“A nice surprise was Noa Levy; she had a personal best in the hurdles, taking 6th place. We haven’t had a girls’ hurdler place in a while. She ran a 9.38 and then came back and tied for third in the high jump (at 4’10). She had a really nice day. Senior long jumper Alex Bell ended up with her personal best by almost a foot and jumped 15’6 and got fifth place.”

With a sectional meet taking place this Sunday at the Bennett Athletic Center in Toms River, Samara is looking for his athletes to keep battling.

“It was a tough meet but we will try to bounce back next weekend at the sectionals,” said Samara.

“The guys are disappointed but they have nothing to hang their heads about. They left everything out there. I told them on the bus, this was the easier of the two; we have a huge challenge next weekend but I am sure they are super motivated.”