Meet of Champions Winter Track 2025 Recap

What a Meet of Champions! While this meet always delivers thrills, it seemed like there were an unusual number of meet records and nationally ranked performances this year. And although Mercer County’s athletes weren’t the ones breaking meet records (at least this year), our local stars still produced tons of PRs, school records, podium finishes, and other excellent results. Check out these highlights from Ocean Breeze on Sunday. Full results here.

Girls Results

The Princeton mid-distance girls earned 8th place medals in the 4x800m with a season’s best – and new indoor school record – of 9:47.27. Rachel Xin (2:25.19) had a great opening leg to put Princeton in a good position, and she was followed up by Grace Hegedus (2:28.77), Mila Trkov (2:27.50), and Lena Murray (2:25.82) on anchor. They improved on their county-leading time by just about a second. The West Windsor-Plainsboro North girls, who were without a couple of top runners who were saving it for their individual events, were 23rd in 10:30.73.

In the 1600m, Zui Chinchalkar (WW-P North) delivered yet another stellar Meet of Champions performance, as she has throughout her decorated high school career. Running in the top-seeded heat, the experienced senior was pulled through the 400m in a very quick 71, but then she settled into a rhythm and clicked off six straight laps of 37-38, crossing the line in 5:00.50! That’s a season’s best by 7 seconds and an all-time best by 4 seconds, beating her 5:04 from last winter’s MoCs. It’s #1 in the CVC this season, and it’s #2 in school history indoors, behind Trish Reilly’s 4:58 from 2009. Chinchalkar finished 9th overall, just a second off the podium.

Sydney Young (Hopewell Valley) also saved her best for last this season, running 5:03.48 in the lower-seeded heat. She ran in 5th or 6th place for the first half, but the sophomore moved up steadily and then won a tight three-way battle for 2nd place in the heat. That’s a 4-second PR for Young, and it got her 11th place overall. Phoenix Roth (Princeton), who ran a nice PR of 5:15 at groups to grab the final wildcard, ran 5:23.89 for 20th place in the sophomore’s first MoCs on the track.

In the 3200m, Allison Lee (WW-P North) took 6th place with a season’s best of 10:41.37. The junior Lee, who led the top-seeded section with a very fast pace in the first mile, couldn’t quite hang with the leaders over the second half, but she still hung on for another MoCs podium finish. Joining her on the podium was Kajol Karra (Princeton), who delivered a gutsy effort to win the lower-seeded section in 10:47.55 and place 7th overall. In an exciting duel with Blythe Dudley (Villa Walsh), Karra led almost the entire way, fought off multiple moves by Dudley, and then launched a devastating kick on the last lap to win the heat by five seconds. 

Elsewhere in Karra’s 3200m heat, Ewing’s Teagan Walker and Lawrence’s Izzy Meth continued rewriting their schools recordbooks! Last week at groups, Walker and Meth finished .10 apart, both set 10-second PRs, both broke their school record, and both became their school’s first girl to qualify for a Meet of Champions – indoors or out – in the 1600m or 3200m. On Sunday, they ran within a second or two of each other the whole way, finished .11 apart, and both took another 5 seconds off their PRs and school records. The senior Walker finished a step ahead in 11:10.22 for 23rd place, and the sophomore Meth was 24th in 11:10.33.

The West Windsor-Plainsboro South 4x400m girls cut another second off their season’s best with a 4:04.66 for 17th place. Adama Turay ran an impressive leadoff leg of 59.73, and the Pirates also got nice splits from Saraiah Hoover (1:01.47), Claire Dumortier (1:01.67), and Anastasia Kudin (1:01.80).

Sonjay Baylor-Reeves (Trenton) earned 6th place with a second-attempt throw of 40’ 6”. That’s the senior’s first medal and her highest finish out of three MoC trips in her throwing career so far.

Adama Turay (WW-P South) jumped a season’s best of 17’ 7.5” to finish 9th in the long jump. She finished barely off the podium after losing a tiebreaker for 8th place by an inch. Still, that’s a new indoor PR and just an inch off her outdoor PR.

In the high jump, Uchenna Obidike (Hopewell Valley) matched her PR of 5-2 to tie for 13th place in the junior’s first Meet of Champions.

Sophie Trzaskus (Lawrence) equaled her pole vault PR (and school record) with a first-attempt clearance of 9’ 6”, which tied her for 18th place overall.

Boys Results

The West Windsor-Plainsboro North boys had a great 4x800m relay race, running 8:16.08 for 12th place overall. They got a notable 2:02.69 second leg from freshman Agrim Jha, joined by Subomi Allison (2:04.32) on leadoff, Jordan Andrade (2:05.65) on third leg, and Luke Ferrer (2:03.44) on anchor. That performance moves the Knights up to #1 in Mercer County this season.

Christopher Young (Notre Dame) crushed his 55mH prelim with a 7.61 to make the finals, where he backed it up with 7.65 for an 8th-place podium finish. Young came into this race with a PR of 7.68 from groups, and he has now PR’d in all six of his meets this season – though this meet was the largest improvement of them all. Tristan Jusino Lansing (Lawrence) ran a 7.71 to finish 12th, equalling his place at this meet from last year (though with a faster time today). Notre Dame had two other boys qualify in the 55mH: Bryce Marsh ran 7.92 for 24th place, and Zamir Jones got 26th in 7.95. Marsh also competed in the high jump, where his 6’ clearance tied him for 17th place.

Gavin Alvarez (Allentown) continues to blaze a new PR every time he touches the track, doing it twice at the Meet of Champions! He opened this day by getting 14th in the 55m prelims in a 6.55, cutting 0.07 off his PR from groups. Then he came back a few minutes later with an even more impressive feat: going sub-50 to place 9th in the 400m. His 49.92 was a PR by almost a full second! He was just 0.07 off the podium. According to MileSplit’s records, Alvarez’s 55m and 400m times were both new school records for Allentown.

Alvarez wasn’t the only Mercer County boy flying in the 400m. Julius Kinsler (WW-P South) inched closer to going sub-50 himself with a new PR of 50.17, which got him 12th place here. Aldric Crawford (Notre Dame) wasn’t far behind, cutting over a half-second off his PR to get 18th place in 50.37. Alvarez, Kinsler, and Crawford are now #1, #2, and #3 in Mercer County this season.

Shravan Pradeep (WW-P South) ran an absolutely masterful race in the 3200m to climb onto the podium in his first Meet of Champions on the track. As the last seed in the top-seeded section – thanks to his 9:29 PR at groups – Pradeep stayed patient and didn’t let the pack drag him out too fast. At halfway, he was actually 2 seconds out the back in 12th place. But several runners came back to him in the second half of the race, especially after Pradeep started his kick from 800m out. He ended up running a slight negative split and crossed the line in 9:20.60 – a 9-second PR that earned him the 8th and final medal by just a half-second!

Matin Mahmoud (Lawrence) jumped 44’ 0” in the showcase triple jump, earning him 13th place in his first Meet of Champions. 

Sean Wilton (Princeton) uncorked a massive throw of 62’ 2.25” to place 3rd in the Meet of Champions! That new PR makes him #17 in the United States this season! It’s also a school record and almost certainly a CVC record. The Mercer County indoor record is 65’ 2.5” by Hun’s Greg Cortina in 1971. Wilton will have two more tries at that record this winter, with Eastern States and then Nationals. He threw over 61’ twice today, showing that he’s in great form right now.