HEADS UP: Hun School girls’ soccer player Nicole Angelini heads the ball in a game earlier this fall. Last Thursday, junior midfielder Angelini scored the lone goal for Hun as it fell 4-1 to Oak Knoll. The Raiders, who lost 3-1 to Lawrenceville last Saturday to move to 3-9, will start play in the state Prep A tournament this week where they are seeded sixth and slated to play a first round contest at third-seeded Oak Knoll on October 24. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

Siena Moran hit the road this summer to prepare for her senior season on the Princeton High girls’ cross country team.

“This was my first summer training; I did really low mileage at first because I had never done summer training before,” said Moran.

“Then towards the end, it was 30 miles a week. I felt a lot stronger coming into this season.”

Moran displayed her strength last Friday, taking second in the girls’ varsity race at the Mercer County championship meet at Washington Crossing Park, clocking a time of 19:00 over the 5,000-meter course with Hun School freshman Charlotte Bednar placing first in 18:20.

“I was super happy with my time, that was a PR for me,” said Moran, whose stellar performance helped PHS to take third in the team standings behind champion WW/P-South and runner-up Allentown. “My PR before that was 19:40. I was not expecting to be anywhere near that time.”

Chasing the fleet Bednar helped Moran produce her superb time. “The last two races I ran, I ended up leading them,” said Moran.

“The last race I was at here, I was leading. I expected to do the same thing and then Charlotte was running ahead of me the entire time. After a while I realized that, it wasn’t my pacing being off but this girl is really fast.”

Having transferred to PHS in 2017 from the American School in London, Moran took a while to get up to speed.

“I am a fairly new runner; my competition in London was definitely not as intense as it is here,” said Moran.

“When I came here, I remember the first month of practice, I was super out of breath. I couldn’t keep up with anyone. I was just not used to the rigor of this program, but my running has dramatically improved since I first arrived here.”

PHS head coach Jim Smirk is thrilled with the improvement he is seeing in Moran.

“Siena was fantastic; I thought she ran really effectively, “ said Smirk. “She is still a pretty young runner in cross country, she is still learning. She is making mistakes out there and we will work on those over the next two weeks and get her ready for sectionals. We have an eye on her to see how deep she can go in the postseason.”

Smirk got a fantastic overall effort from his squad in the county meet as sophomore Charlotte Gilmore placed 15th in 20:51 with sophomore Yana Medvedeva coming in 21st in 21:03, junior Erica Oake taking 29th in 21:25, and sophomore Emma Lips finishing 30th in 21:30.

“I am actually thrilled with our girls’ performance. We have been a little inconsistent this year,” said Smirk.

“We have had some good races and we have had some races where we have been really disjointed as a team. Today was our best team effort for sure and it is timely. They have been doing great work. I believed in our potential to have it but I am not sure I would say today was the day.”

With the state sectional meet slated for November 3 at Thompson Park in Jamesburg, Moran is confident that PHS came produce another big race.

“It is looking pretty good for the team as well; we lost two very good seniors last year and we weren’t  really sure where we stood,” said Moran.

“The girls team is fairly new; a lot of them were freshmen last year and I wasn’t here until last year. We are all coming together as a team and really solidifying this year.”