By Justin Feil

Mila Trkov has been adjusting to her first year of track and field with the Princeton High girls’ squad.

The freshman took another big step by anchoring two of the Tigers’ highest placing events at the Mercer County Championships on Friday and Saturday at Robbinsville High, the 4×800 and the 4×400 relays. She has toggled between the sprints and the distance group as a runner who can help both relay teams.

“It was definitely really scary because there was like that pressure that now we can score points,” said Trkov. “I was in the relays for the 4×8 and the 4×4 so I didn’t want to let my team down, and you know my group down. So there was definitely some nervousness from that as well as my additional pre-race anxiety.”

Trkov produced a pair of season-best splits to help each team. The girls 4×800 relay of Maddie Aboumeri, Brielle Moran, Rachel Xin, and Trkov took second in 9:56.48. Trkov brought the baton across the line after a 2:26 split.

“I was really happy because for my 800 I’ve been struggling a lot with going out too fast,” said Trkov. “My splits were pretty even, like they were 72/74. So it was about even.”

The girls’ 4×400 relay of Kacey Howes, Leah O’Neill, Grace Zeng, and Trkov placed third in 4:13.95, almost five seconds better than their seed time. Trkov helped lower that time by pushing for a 1:03 split in their final leg.

“I really like being the anchor because I found that this year I do a lot better when I have competition,” said Trkov. “There’s usually a lot of competition in that final anchor, and it’s almost more motivation in a way to push myself into that fourth gear. So it’s good to motivate me.”

The Tigers had plenty of good motivation from a strong county. PHS has an extremely young team on the girls side, and they placed eighth with 23 points, seven points behind seventh-place Wilberforce School in the meet win by the Lawrenceville School.

“As this group’s been coming together, we’ve been saying that this is a team in two years or so that we can see contending not just for a county title, but maybe even a state title,” said PHS head coach Ben Samara. “It’s just a really young, talented young group of girls we have. All of them are buying in to what we want to do in terms of our team culture and how we operate and they’re really gelling as a group, so it was nice to see how they did. We didn’t get a lot of first and seconds, but we got a lot of those fourth, fifth and sixth places that are going to turn into that in the future as we continue to build and we’re going through this. The girls team is going to be a juggernaut moving forward.”

Anna Winters was third in the girls 100 meters in 12.85 seconds. The sophomore placed seventh in the girls 200 meters in 26.45 seconds The girls 4×100 relay ran 51.11 seconds to finish fifth. Lena Murray ran 2:23.10 for seventh in the girls 800 meters while Phoenix Roth placed seventh in the girls 1,600 in 5:14.57.

The PHS girls had three finishers in the top eight in the girls 3,200 meters. Kajol Karra ran 11:20.24 for sixth, Grace Hegedus ran 11:23.49 for seventh, and Phoenix Roth placed eighth in 11:26.46.
Elise Waller cleared 8’ 6 for sixth place in the girls pole vault. Ngozi Okeke-Agulu was sixth in girls’ long jump with a mark of 15’1. Grace DeFaria was seventh at 14’11.

“Learning to deal with the pressure of a big meet is so important and there were just so many teachable moments this weekend after races how we talk to ourselves, how we think about things we did well, things we didn’t do well,” said Samara. “And those little conversations and those little moments are so valuable in building a championship program, and you don’t always get them with the younger athletes because they’re not there yet. But these athletes are there and able to compete and medal at this level already. And that’s just going to pay dividends over the next couple of years.”

The Princeton boys scored 53 points to finish in third place in the team standings while Robbinsville piled up 81 points to take first and Peddie School had 67 for second place.

“We fought through some injuries, especially with our jumpers,” said Samara. “We had a tough time with that. But they really gave it their all, which is all we can ask from them in a meet like this.”
Sean Wilton won the boys’ discus with a throw of 150’11. The junior also won the boys’ shot put with a throw of 51’ 6.75.

“He’s just been very consistent all year,” said Samara. “He has a good head on his shoulders. He’s even reading books on sports psychology, that’s how deep he’s getting into this now and he’s going to be really, really dangerous on the state level.”

Sawyer Quallen, competing at less than 100 percent, was second in the boys’ long jump at 20’8.5. Oliver Spagnoli was seventh at 20’1, a half-inch better than Ishaq Inayat, who placed eighth Quallen also placed second in boys triple jump with a 41’7.5 mark even though he could only take one jump due to his injury. Inayat was sixth at 40’4.

Princeton’s 4×100 boys’ relay placed third in 44.60 seconds while the boys’ 4×800 ran 8:22.51 for fourth place.

Ben Gitai was fourth in the boys’ 200 in 22.41 seconds, while Josh Barzilai took sixth in the boys’ 1,600 meters in 4:29.24. Simon Obregon threw 134’2 for sixth in the boys javelin. Felix Farrugia ran 9:57.54 for eighth place in the boys 3,200 meters.

PHS hopes to be healthier on the boys side for sectionals in two weeks.

“We’re just focused on getting as many people healthy and trying to get them an extra meet,” said Samara. “And at groups we’ll see if we can’t get a couple of people to Meet of Champions.”

Trkov is looking to keep extending her season as well. Each meet is a chance to compete and figure out the way that she competes best. She’s come a long way this year, both as a competitor and with developing into a stronger runner, particularly with her running form.

“I have improved a lot on that personally,” said Trkov. “I think also a lot of race experience has come with this season especially running on an outdoor track and not just indoors. I also think I’ve gotten a lot of relay experience and also this experience with overcoming this pre-race anxiety when there’s so many more people now than there would be for a lot of the indoor meets.”

It’s helped to have so many teammates in a similar boat going through the adjustments to high school track and field with her. Trkov ran in middle school and considered herself more focused on distance running after coming off the fall cross country season before then finding herself in a new role this spring.

“Last year I still ran the 4 and 8,” said Trkov. “But still then, and even now, I would say I still almost think of myself more as a distance person, just because that’s where most of my friends are. But I like training with the sprinters, they’ve all been like really welcoming, really helping me out, like accepting me being in the relay with all sprinters, here I am kind of almost like a distance kid who came to run with the sprinters. So I’m kind of in this middle ground.”

She has discovered that the Tigers can use her talents in the 400 and 800 events as a true middle distance runner.

“I trained with the distance kids in cross country and indoor track and this track season I started training with the sprinters,” said Trkov. “So I’m becoming more acquainted with the sprinters and the sprinter lifestyle in a sense, but that’s also been helping me with my 400.”

That speed development along with form work has helped with both events. She’s been able to focus on running each event better. The relays and the individual races feel a bit different – she enjoys the support of teammates in relays – but she’s finding herself faster in the 400 and 800 now thanks to her work with both.

“Because I’m worrying less about my form, I can worry more on how I’m feeling, how better to push myself,” said Trkov. “And then working with the sprinters, now I feel like I’ve been able to be comfortable with running both events.”

Trkov is hoping she’ll gain even more company as a middle distance runner. PHS sees the potential for others to benefit from the sort of training she has taken on this year.

“We don’t often see that kind of crossover,” said Samara. “We have a lot of girls who are this year we’re feeling like can straddle that 4/8. We’re working more with that kind of style of training group this season and it’s been helpful.”

This season it has helped Trkov find a new way to help PHS. She is part of a bright future for the Tiger girls that gains a little momentum with every meet. PHS will use the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) Central Jersey Group 4 meet on May 31 for more experience and a chance to show the sort of foundation that is building toward a championship contender.