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The West Windsor-Plainsboro North boys won a one-point thriller and the Princeton girls captured its first title in 15 years at Friday's Mercer County Championships at Washington Crossing State Park in Titusville.
The boys team race was an instant classic as unranked WW North used a lethal frontal attack to repeat as champion, edging NJ#9 Princeton, 52-53.,
Princeton put all five of its scorers in the top 15 (5-8--12-13-15), but WW North countered with 1-2-4 finish from Anish Agrawal, who won in 15:37, runner-up Nikhil Makker (15:42), and Jeffrey Chen, fourth in 15:54. The fourth and fifth finishers for WW North, who averaged 16:20, were Virat Vishwanadhula, 17th in 17:03, and Neil Deshpande, 28th in 17:26.
This is the fifth county title for WW North, who also won in 2007, '08, '09, and '19. Agrawal is the fourth WW-P North runner to win the individual title. Joe Rosa won in 2008, Jon Squeri in 2009, and Jim Rosa, Joe's twin, captured the crown in 2010.
In the girls race, No. 13 Princeton captured its first championship since 2006 by outscoring No. 9 ranked Lawrenceville, 57-85. No. 20 Robbinsville finished third with 109.
Freshman Zui Chinchalkar of WW North captured the individual title in 18:47. Lawrenceville All-American and Notre Dame-bound Charlotte Bednar didn't compete.
Princeton packed four runners in the top 11 and averaged 19:56 en route to the victory. This is sixth county title for Princeton, which also won in 1985, '86, '87, '88, and '06.
The scorers for Princeton were junior Robin Roth, second in 19:11, junior Lucy Kreipke, fourth in 19:29, sophomore Kyleigh Tangen, sixth in 19:31, freshman Florica Eleches-Lipsitz, 12th in 20:05, and senior Ryan Vaughey, 35th in 21:28