It was the kind of post-season that coaches love to see from their runners.
The West Windsor-Plainsboro North trio of junior Luke Ferrer, junior Zui Chinchalkar and sophomore Allison Lee started impressively in the Mercer County Championships and just continued to excel all the way to the NJSIAA Meet of Champions.
“From counties to sectionals to states to Meet of Champions each race got a little bit better and they finished with their best for sure,” said head boys coach Brian Gould, who also assists Warren Gerstacker with the girls teams. .
The indication of good things to come began in 2022, when all three had top-15 MCT finishes and advanced to the Group III meet. This year they took that final step into the MOC at Holmdel Park as underclassmen, and Gerstacker and Gould were happy with their effort.
“A hundred percent,” Gould said. “The Meet of Champions is a very different type of race. We don’t typically look at time as much as place. It’s very crowded, very chaotic and I don’t think the time tells the whole story of how you compete. We’ll look at the progression of place throughout the race— just the eye test of how a kid is competing. And they all competed fantastically that day.”
Chinchalkar was the top Northern Knights finisher, going 19:10 to take 17th place. Lee finished 24th in 19:20, while Ferrer was 83rd in 17:01. There were 160 runners in the girls meet and 165 for the boys.
Of the three, Lee had the most interesting journey.
After finishing eighth in the MCT and fourth in Central Jersey Group III, she returned this year and missed the entire month of September and part of October with a shin injury. Her first meet back was the MCT, which Allison promptly won in a time of 18:57.
Pretty darn amazing.
“Yeah, that’s as well as it can go, right?” Gould said. “That was a really exciting moment for her and a big emotional moment. The weeks following she had to ride that emotional roller coaster. As great as that is, how do you follow up on that? So that takes a lot of emotional energy as well, you’re coming off that big accomplishment, that really emotionally high moment.”
Indeed, Lee set the bar high for herself but did not disappoint. The 10th-grader took third in CJ III in 19:15 and maintained that time with a 10th-place finish in 19:16 at the Group III meet.
“Allison had a great freshman year and had a really nice summer of training and then she had the injury,” Gould said. “But she really did a great job with swimming, getting on the bike, doing her cross training. She was doing everything she needed to do with her exercises. It was ‘Hey, let’s get healthy again.’ That was a great accomplishment for her and speaks to her discipline.
“Allison came back kind of jumping into the deep end, that was a challenge for her to jump right back in that spot she wanted to be in. She responded very well to that.”
Without Lee for six weeks, Chinchalkar had no fellow frontrunner to help push her in practice and dual meets. But the junior answered the call once the big meets started, taking second in the MCT (19:09), fifth in CJ III (19:41) and sixth in Group III (19:24).
“Zui has been an outstanding runner since her freshman year,” Gould said. “For the last three years she’s been very consistent. With Allison injured, Zui was doing a lot of training on her own and to be the one person by herself is a challenge in itself.
“Once everybody was healthy and everything was clicking, they were able to push each other and support each other. They’re great teammates, they get along really well and support each other really well. They’re a dynamic duo.”
Ferrer was also without a head-of-the-pack training partner as Ethan Abilius, WW-PN’s top finisher in states last year, spent much of the season recovering from a stress fracture.
“Early in the summer there was a large group of guys together and I would say over the course of the year Luke began to separate himself out from that group,” Gould said. “It got to the point where the last couple weeks of training he was out there on his own, which I think sort of, in his way, was empowering to him. He seemed to like that.
“Luke’s the type of guy who likes to be out in front, pushing the pace, testing his own limits. You don’t necessarily see a big difference in workouts whether he’s with someone or alone because he always wants to set that pace. That gave him an opportunity to work on that resilience and mental toughness, being out there alone and pushing himself as he separated himself over the weeks as the season went on.”
Indeed, there seemed to be no issue with being out front alone. The junior finished third in the MCTs (16:56) and CJ III (17:03) and 21st in groups (16:50). His time was good enough for a wild card entry into the MOC. Ferrer qualified for states last year as West Windsor went as a team, but was unable to run due to illness.
“Starting from his freshman year, he’s been one of our most dedicated guys,” Gould said. “He’s really reliable, works very hard, and loves the sport. He had really nice freshman and sophomore years, he had some nice times on the track and now as a junior he’s coming into his own. I think each ensuing season will be really exciting and a lot of fun for him.”
It was certainly fun for Gould and Gerstacker to watch their talented trio advance to the MOC. In assessing their abilities, Gould feels there is a common thread between them.
“All three are really passionate in what they do,” the veteran coach said. “They’re consistent and dedicated and determined. They work real hard over the summer and throughout the season they don’t miss practice. They make a lot of sacrifices in order to prepare themselves for these big meets and it really paid off this year.”
Another similarity is that they each possess the kind of mindset that is necessary for any harrier.
“Cross country is physically very challenging and mentally challenging as well,” Gould said. “You’ve got anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes running out there alone and in your head. So the ability to focus and block out distractions is very important. All three are outstanding at that. They’re very positive, they set very specific goals. They’re determined to accomplish those goals.
“When things get hard, our whole team in general, but those three in particular, are really able to block out the noise and stay focused. They have that mental toughness and emotional resilience and are capable of moving forward through difficulty.”
With those three to build around, both the boys and girls programs should move forward with plenty of optimism. Each team loses a few seniors, but Gould noted that every year sophomores seem to step up and produce in place of the graduates.
“On the boys side we’ll have a nice mix,” he said. “I challenge them seriously and it’s motivating to them. The girls are a very young team, a lot of girls who ran sectionals and groups will be back next year. They’ve learned some lessons and gotten some really valuable experience and hopefully will use that to set big goals for the future years.
“I’d say the future is bright.”
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WW-P South had one MOC qualifier in Catherine Gobo, who ran a time of 21:30. Gobo qualified as a wild card with a time of 20:11 in the Group IV meet, and she finished ninth in CJ IV with a mark of 20:09.
WW-P North cross country runners Luke Ferrer (left), Allison Lee and Zui Chinchalkar.,
