Wrestling

PHS wrestling had a successful run in the state tournament, with Chloe Ayres ’21, James Romain ’21, and Ava Rose ’23 all qualifying, and Ayres winning her weight class. She was also voted the top pound-for-pound wrestler in the state.

“This meant a lot to me because I didn’t receive this honor last year,” said Ayres. “James and Ava also went. … They are super hard workers so it was great to get to be down in [Atlantic City] with them because they really put the time in and it makes PHS look so much better.”

Although nationals are canceled due to the global pandemic, Ayres still trains and continues her workouts at home. A hard worker at heart, Ayres isn’t dwelling on nationals; instead, she now has her eyes set on world team trials which are set to be held in May.

Boys Hockey

PHS boys hockey won the Mercer County tournament, highlighted by their comeback against the Hun School in the finals, from being down 5-0 to winning 7-5. Rocco Salvato ’20 scored four goals and was named the MVP of the game.

“Hun isn’t necessarily our rival school, but … it felt really good to beat them in the final, especially with a comeback win,” said Patrick McDonald ’21.

Coaches Joe Bensky and Matt Strober were very influential, according to McDonald, and the team could not have pulled off the comeback win without them.

Winter Track

While the winter track team wasn’t competitive in the county or state tournaments, two juniors stood out. Jacob Bornstein ’21 and Doraldinho Servil ’21 both set personal records and were at the top of nearly every PHS leaderboard this winter. Bornstein ran a 9 minute 48.38 second 3200-meter at the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association Sectional Championships in Toms River, New Jersey.

“Going into the race, I wasn’t set on a time. I was more focused on getting out of the group than [breaking my personal record], overall it was just a win-win,” said Bornstein. “In the end it all came down to your mental game, [I] just have to tell myself to keep running, to keep going.”

Running two miles is usually physically taxing, but for Bornstein that race was more of an internal challenge.

“I had to put the pain aside and focus on passing and chasing others down,” said Bornstein. “After all, running is more mental than physical.”

Bornstein credits much of his success to valuing every practice as an opportunity to improve for competitions.

“It’s all in the practice, if you work hard in practice, you’re bound to go faster in the meet. I just pushed myself to the point where every single meet I kept on getting better and kept [breaking personal records].”

In addition to Bornstein’s personal record, Servil ran a 52.87 second 400-meter at the second Princeton Invitational Series.

“[The race] was intense, it was fun. I was running, I was halfway through the race and all I heard was ‘Doro keep going,’” said Servil. “In my head I was behind the guy in first place and then the coach was screaming at me telling me to run full speed and I did that.”

Servil exploded this season, setting personal records with a 6.86 second 55-meter dash, 23.77 second 200-meter run, 52.87 second 400-meter run, and a 19’ 5” long jump. He credits his success to taking every practice and race seriously.

Boys Basketball

Over the past few years, the PHS boys basketball team has been growing together. The team rebounded from the last season where they went 4-21 to 13-12, their best in the past four years. They scored 1,337 points this season, up from 837 points a year ago. Zane Scott ’21, backup center for the team, attributes this season’s success to the atmosphere that the team built throughout the season.

“This season [we did better] mainly because it felt more like a family than a team. We were all close with each other and we had a real connection,” said Scott. “We were truly connected and had a strive to win every single game.”

However, the team is still looking to progress. It was knocked out in the quarterfinal of the county tournament, and is aiming to make a deeper run next year.

“Obviously we’re still looking to improve. There are things we could have done better. Our record, while good, is still only barely positive but I’m confident that we will continue to improve for next year,” Scott said.