Meet of Champions Recap: Princeton Girls 2nd, Allison Lee 3rd
Mercer County was well represented by 32 athletes at the 2024 XC Meet of Champions today! Here’s a recap of how they and their teams performed.
Boys Race
Shravan Pradeep (West Windsor-Plainsboro South) charges to the line in 12th place. | Richard O’Donnell for NJ Advance Media
Shravan Pradeep (West Windsor-Plainsboro South) proved that he’s one of the best runners in the state by taking 12th at the Meet of Champions. After running in 20th place through the mile marker and then cresting the Bowl in 16th, he made a gutsy move up to 10th and then held on to cross the line in 12th. That’s a spectacular performance, especially considering that he was ranked 22nd in the state coming into this race. His time of 16:07 chopped 11 seconds off his Holmdel PR and made him 10th on WW-P South’s all-time Holmdel list, which is probably the deepest and fastest school leaderboard in Mercer County.
Mercer County’s second finisher was Hightstown’s Burke Thompson in 16:49, just a few seconds off his Holmdel PR from last week. He finished 54th, his same place as in the Group Championships merged results. The senior only ever ran at Holmdel twice, and he broke 16:50 both times!
Felix Farrugia (Princeton) ran an amazing race last week to qualify for the Meet of Champions, and then he one-upped it with his race this week! His time of 16:54 was one second faster than last week, and his 64th-place finish was a big improvement from being 88th place in the Group Championships merge.
Tarun Kovoor (Notre Dame) ran 17:12 to finish 99th in his first Meet of Champions. He was the first Notre Dame runner to compete at this championship meet since 2016.
The Wilberforce boys were represented by sophomore Elias Edwards. His 18:30 was his second-fastest time at Holmdel, after the 18:31 he ran last week to qualify for this meet.
The Princeton Day boys were up against stiffer and larger competition than they usually face – even the school from Group 1, Metuchen, was over 3x larger than Princeton Day – but the Panthers got great experience in their first ever Meet of Champions. One highlight was the huge race from their #1 runner, junior Grayson McLaughlin. On a day when most runners across the board ran about the same or slower than last week, McLaughlin cut 19 seconds off his time to run 17:10 and break the Princeton Day course record!
Girls Race
The Princeton girls pose with their medals after getting 2nd place. | Richard O’Donnell for NJ Advance Media
For the third straight week, the Princeton girls came into a postseason race with high expectations and pressure to churn out another high-level performance. And, for the third straight week, the Princeton girls surpassed those expectations and raised the bar to another level! With a 2nd-place finish at the Meet of Champions, Princeton cemented itself as the best public school in New Jersey this year. Although they were beaten by Union Catholic – who is ranked #20 in the whole United States – the Princeton girls actually finished closer to Union Catholic (21 points ahead) than to third-place Colts Neck (29 points behind). It’s highly likely that this Princeton team is the best girls XC team that Mercer County has ever had.
Kajol Karra (Princeton) kicks hard for 12th at the Meet of Champions. Zui Chinchalkar (West Windsor-Plainsboro North) finishes just behind her in 13th. | Richard O’Donnell for NJ Advance Media
As their score indicates, the Princeton girls each ran excellent races. In particular, Kajol Karra ran an incredible race. After getting out somewhat slow in the first 800, she made a big push over the next mile to put herself in the Top 15, and then she finished strong to take 12th place in 19:03. That’s a stunning result, considering she came into the race ranked 27th in the state and had finished 26th in the Group Championships merge last week. Her time of 19:03 crushed her Holmdel PR of 19:26 and set a new Princeton school record!
Her teammates ran great races, too. Grace Hegedus finished 26th in 19:31, which was 1 second faster and 6 places better than her result at the Group Championships. Eowyn Deess continued her streak of getting better every meet, this time by running a 10-second Holmdel PR for 39th place in 19:49. And one of the biggest reasons for Princeton’s phenomenal result today was freshman Rosemary Warren, who chopped 28 seconds off her time from last week to run 20:04 and finish 58th, beating dozens of girls who finished ahead of her at the Group Championships. Phoenix Roth wrapped up Princeton’s scoring with her own 15-second Holmdel PR of 20:09 for 64th place.
Overall, the Princeton girls averaged an incredible 19:43, thirteen seconds faster than what they ran to win the Group Championships last week.
Allison Lee (West Windsor-Plainsboro North) climbs the Bowl en route to a third-place finish. | Tom Harkins for MileSplit
Equally impressive was the individual performance of West Windsor-Plainsboro North’s Allison Lee! The star junior was ranked 15th in preseason polls before turning heads with huge times at Thompson and Holmdel, eventually climbing to 3rd in the rankings after the Group Championships. At the Meet of Champions, she finished 3rd to validate her lofty ranking! Considering the only two girls ahead of her – Paige Sheppard (Union Catholic) and Liliah Gordon (Northern Burlington) – are two of the most talented and decorated girls in NJ XC history, that’s quite a feat.
Lee ran in 3rd for pretty much the entire race. Fourth place was on her heels at the top of the Bowl, but Lee then dropped the hammer and quickly gapped the chase pack. Lee’s time today was just a couple of seconds slower than last week, but today was also a slightly slower day in general, and she finished much closer to Sheppard and Gordon this time. Lee’s 3rd place finish appears to be the highest by a Mercer County girl at the Meet of Champions in the last 50 years, since Hopewell Valley’s Hilary Noden won the first three editions of the meet in 1972-74.
Lee’s teammate Zui Chinchalkar came into this race as one of the most successful runners in Mercer County, having previously gotten 19th and 17th at the XC Meet of Champions. She made her third and final Meet of Champions her best! The senior finished 13th in 19:04, which was seven seconds faster than last week and her second-fastest time at Holmdel ever. She once again showed an amazing ability to run aggressively in the first half of the race and still somehow catch a second wind in the last 400m to kick with anyone. That strategy made her a three-time Meet of Champions medalist today.
The Hopewell Valley girls, who were the last team accepted into the Meet of Champions, proved that they absolutely deserved to be there with their 12th place finish. They were actually only 16 points away from 7th place, showing how evenly matched they are with the other top-ranked teams in the state!
Hopewell Valley was led by senior Claire Dumont in 30th place with a time of 19:34, her second-fastest Holmdel time ever. Sydney Young broke 20:00 for the second straight week with a 19:56 for 46th. Maddie LaChance ran a very solid 20:17 for 75th place, a few seconds off her time from last week but six places better than her result in the Group Championships merge.
Wilberforce’s Laura Sallade had a great race to get 37th place in 19:45. That’s a 4-second Holmdel PR and a 14-place improvement from the Group Championships merge. Her teammate Stella Blanchard cut 28 seconds off her time from last week to run 21:52 in her first Meet of Champions.
Allentown was represented by Emilia Wroblewski, who had a great run to get 66th in 20:11. That’s 2 seconds and 21 places better than her finish at the Group Championships.
Ewing’s Teagan Walker ran 20:19 to get 79th in her first Meet of Champions. That’s her second-fastest Holmdel time ever, and it’s also 5 places better than her finish in the Group Championships merge from last week. She’s the first Ewing girl, and just the second Ewing runner overall, to ever run at the XC Meet of Champions.