FULL SPEED AHEAD: Princeton High girls’ track star Kendall Williamson displays her sprinting form at the Central Jersey Group 4 sectional meet last Friday at Long Branch High. Producing a stellar performance at the sectional meet, junior Williamson placed second in the 100 meters, fourth in the 200 in 25.75, and helped the 4×400 relay place fourth. The PHS girls’ squad placed ninth in the team standings at the meet. Earlier in the week, Williamson helped the Tigers take first at the Colonial Valley Conference championship meet, winning the 100 meters and the 200 in 26.02 seconds and placing placed third in the 400. PHS scored 127 points to runner-up Hopewell Valley’s 115. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Justin Feil

Kendall Williamson’s athletic focus used to be on gymnastics, but she has flipped to track and field in recent years and the Princeton High girls’ team couldn’t be happier.

Having gone from a track neophyte to a superb sprinter, junior Williamson has emerged as a star for the PHS program.

“I’m happy too,” said Williamson, reflecting on her switch to track.

Williamson showed real promise as a gymnast, starting at age 8 and climbing the ranks until a serious injury gave her pause.

“I fractured my back,” said Williamson. “It was just very hard to go back and heal from that and keep doing gymnastics. I was getting injured a lot in gymnastics, so I decided it was time to quit. As a Level 10 gymnast, injuries are going to happen. I was home schooled for a year in seventh grade because gymnastics was such a big part of my life.”

Turning to track for something different, Williamson found a new pursuit. She competed in eighth grade for enjoyment before starting to get serious as a freshman. After a promising first year, she was headed for a big encore performance in the last spring after helping the 4×400 reach the Meet of Champions.

The COVID-19 pandemic ended the 2020 outdoor season, and Williamson came back even more motivated this year to perform well despite missing a season of formal training.

“I don’t know about making up for it,” said Williamson. “I think I might have been a little bit faster, but I think I’m doing the best I can do after a pandemic. The last time I ran outdoor was freshman year. I’ve improved so much since then, so maybe I would have been a little faster but I’m doing all I can do.”

Last week, Williamson showed her speed as she helped the Tigers win the Colonial Valley Conference championship meet, winning the 100 meters in 12.98 seconds, the 200 in 26.02 seconds, placing third in the 400 meters in 1:02.12 and anchoring the second-place 4×400 relay that ran 4:07.7. PHS scored 127 points to runner-up Hopewell Valley’s 115 in the meet which concluded on June 1 after being pushed back due to inclement weather over Memorial Day weekend.

“Going into it, we knew we had a good chance of winning,” said Williamson.

“But we knew it wasn’t going to be easy because Hopewell and Allentown have very good sprint teams and distance teams. The weather wasn’t really ideal, but we knew what we had to do and we did it. The girls are very happy about it – that we could finally win.”

The conference championships began on the Friday, and were to be completed Saturday, but didn’t conclude until Tuesday as downpours drenched the area over the weekend. That left little time to enjoy the win before PHS competed in the sectional championships last weekend at Long Branch High, but the Tigers wanted to relish their accomplishment.

“It’s huge,” said PHS head coach Ben Samara. “For the last several years, we’ve had some really great girls teams that have had the chance to win the county or conference title and just circumstances have not worked out. We had a really great team in 2019 and we lost a couple girls right before the meet. Then we had a very strong team in 2020 and of course the season gets canceled. This one wasn’t just for the girls this year, it was for the girls in the past two years as well. A lot of them were sending well wishes and a couple of them spoke to the team. It was a big moment for several years, not just for this year.”

PHS received points from across the board with the top six in each event scoring. Robin Roth led a 1-2-3 sweep of the 3,200 meters in 11:46.06. Lucy Kreipke was second in 11:48.84 and Charlotte Gilmore took third in 11:49.65. Roth placed second in the 1,600 meters in 5:17.41 while Kreipke placed fourth in 5:21.87.

Peyton Reynolds won the pole vault when she cleared 8-feet. Ada Metaxas was second in long jump at 16’1/2. She was also second in the triple jump with a mark of 34’1. Metaxas finished fourth in the 100-meter hurdles in 16.74 seconds with Katherine Monroe fifth in 16.97 seconds.

Alysse Kiesewetter was second in the 400 hurdles in 1:08.14. The 4×800 relay was second in 10:02.18. The 4×100 was fourth in a season-best 52.75 seconds. Yana Medvedeva took fourth in the 800 meters in 2:26.01.

“Even after we went 1-2-3 in the two-mile on Saturday, we still had Hopewell up by a couple of points,” said Samara. “We overperformed for the whole meet by 20 points. They overperformed by 10 or so points. They didn’t back down at all. It took some big things on that third day – a really, really tough 800 meters from Yana Medvedeva to get four big points. And then two events that we weren’t even thinking about at the beginning of the season – the 4×100 relay and the triple jump, just looking at the stats through the course of the season, we saw there was an opportunity to pick up some points there.”

On the boys side, point scorers at the CVC meet were led by the second-place 4×800 relay. The boys’ 4×800 was second in 8:26.85. The 4×400 was sixth in 3:38.87. Addison Motto was second in the 800 in 1:59.96 and Andrew Kenny was fifth in 2:02.34. Motto was sixth in the 1,600 meters in 4:35.75.

Khalil Benjamin won the javelin with a throw of 139-5. Christopher Consoli was fourth in pole vault with a 9’6 clearance.

The boys’ highlight of the season came at sectionals last weekend when the 4×800 relay of John Zammit, Addison Motto, Andrew Kenny, and Collin McCafferty won the Central Jersey Group 4 title in 8:16.39, almost two seconds ahead of East Brunswick’s 8:18.35.

“It was a fantastic race,” said Samara. “This is one that I don’t think anybody thought we’d be competing for county and sectional titles in the boys 4×8 at the start of the season. These guys have really rounded into shape. They have so much confidence now. Coach Smirk, before the 4×8, they were talking about the order and he left the decision up to them. They embraced that. They put themselves in some uncomfortable positions which allowed them to shine a little bit more.”

The top six finishers in each sectional event advance to the Group 4 state championships that will be held this Friday and Saturday at Franklin High. Williamson qualified in all three events that she ran. She was second in the 100 in 12.59 seconds. She took fourth in the 200 in 25.75 seconds and she helped the 4×400 relay place fourth in 4:12.37. Ada Metaxas was the lone PHS girl to capture a group title. She won the long jump with a personal-best 17-1¼.

“She’s been chasing 17 feet for a while,” said Samara. “She’s been dealing with some shin issues as a lot of jumpers do, but she’s kept working on her technique, her speed to the board, and I think she has more to go. It’s probably going to take another PR from her to get through, but I think she has it in her.”

Roth placed fifth in the 3,200 in 11:45.03. The PHS girls finished ninth in the team standings with 28 points.

“I think there were some really good positives to take away,” said Samara in assessing the squad’s performance at the sectional meet.

“The girls knew this, that there was going to be somewhat of a letdown after putting so much mental energy over so many days in that conference championship, so that’s to be expected. I think everyone is a little tired.”

Instead of her usual four events, Williamson did not compete in the 400 meters that was back-to-back with the 100 meters at the CJ 4 championships. She will focus on the 100 and 200 and 4×400 at groups.

“She’s been putting in race after race for the past couple meets, quadding every single weekend,” said Samara.

“The way she’s putting it on the line and the way that she’s going into all these races, potentially risking her own personal performance for the benefit of the team, speaks for her character. I think it says a lot. She’s been very, very steady and very, very consistent and obviously we couldn’t have done it without her.”

Showing a consistent work ethic, Williamson positioned herself for a big year despite the challenges of losing last spring’s season. She pushed to continue her development, finding a way to lift even without the school’s weight room being open and to keep herself in shape.

“Since the beginning of quarantine, I’ve been working really hard,” said Williamson. “I’ve been going to the gym, going on runs by myself. I’m just really grateful that we have a season and a chance to run. I’m just really happy about it.”

Williamson has seen positive changes in herself that have enabled her to come back better than the last time she ran outdoor track. The inner drive is the biggest difference in helping her find a new level of achievement.

“I’m more self-motivated,” said Williamson. “Because of the pandemic I wasn’t able to go to practice so I had to push myself to train on my own. I hold myself accountable more. I’m definitely more confident. As a freshman, I didn’t really know what to expect and I was running against seniors. Now I’m a junior and I have more confidence now.”

Reaching the Group 4 meet was one goal of hers. She is also looking to beat the school record in the 100 meters of 12.35 seconds, having run a personal best of 12.46. If she can set a new best at groups, it would give her a better chance at making the Meet of Champions. The top three finishers in each event automatically advance as well as the next nine best times from the combined Group 2 and 4 results. Giving Williamson the chance to focus on her top two individual events will help as she aims for her goals. Williamson also has a long-term goal of running in college, and she has just begun the college search process.

“Next year I’m definitely going to throw down some really good times,” said Williamson. “I’m just happy with how I’m doing after the pandemic and preparing myself for next year. Sometimes I forget I have another year.”

PHS and the rest of the CVC haven’t forgotten. The Tigers are looking forward to one more year after a big finish to this season in the sport that’s become her driving force.

“This year, we have the depth in the sprints to be competitive in a 4×1 or 4×4, but when it comes down to the individual events, with the talent that we have in the CVC, we needed Kendall up top,” said Samara.

“In the 1 and the 2, those girls have been nipping at her heels for a while. She’s got a target on her back. She showed she’s still No. 1.”