Times of Trenton Athlete of the Week: Lawrenceville’s Paige Gillen

For NJ Advance Media

For NJ Advance Media

Paige Gillen had the goal that put Lawrenceville’s girls soccer team on the board last Saturday against top-seeded Hopewell Valley in the Mercer County Tournament quarterfinals, and she had the overtime goal that sent the Big Red on to the semifinals with a 3-2 win, ninth seed or not.

It was just the latest example of Gillen’s contribution with the Lawrenceville name on her shirt, whether she does it with her feet, with the basketball in her hand, or wielding a lacrosse stick.

The timely scoring added Tuesday night’s MCT semifinal to the schedule of a Lawrenceville team that endured a 1-4-1 start to the season, including 0-4-1 against its fellow preps.

That one tie, though, coming against Pennington 2-2 on Sept. 16, gave Lawrenceville some sense of what the season could be. The 5-1 stretch since, through the MCT quarterfinal win over Hopewell Valley, is part of the fruition of those early-season bumps.

If there’s anyone on the Big Red who has the reference for the ups and downs that come with competitive sports, it’s Gillen, who not only competes in all three seasons for Lawrenceville’s varsity teams, but has and has had siblings competing up and down Route 206. Her brothers, Colin and Gunnar, are current student-athletes at the Hun School up the road, and her sister Kaleigh preceded her at Lawrenceville, competing in softball and track and field.

Getting out and playing a sport is part of being a Gillen.

“I just grew up playing sports,” Paige Gillen said. “Ever since I was little, my dad got me into them, and I grew up with two brothers, so they’ve always kind of kept that competitive side on me. I just love sports. It’s what keeps me going. I just like the competitiveness, challenging myself and others.”

It’s a background that Lawrenceville coach Jennifer Manguson appreciates.

“I love the multi-sport athlete,” Manguson said. “I know that’s something that’s becoming increasingly rare, but I think the skills you pick up in other sports can really transfer over to the sport that you’re currently playing. I think also just that competitive fire that you get from competing at such a high level in a variety of sports really transfers nicely from season to season. I think the other thing too is she knows how to balance her time. She’s busy year-round. She knows when to be focused and when she can have some down time, and she’s done a really nice job managing that for her whole life, it seems like.”

The opportunities to let those competitive juices flow will keep on coming. Along with advancing to the under-the-lights stage of the MCT, Lawrenceville has to get ready to play in the NJISAA Prep A tournament. It’s a bracket that the Pennington School has dominated, winning 13 of the last 15 titles.

The Red Raiders are the top seed in the draw, followed by Blair and then Lawrenceville third. So, the Big Red won’t be the favorite in that tournament, but they weren’t when they walked onto the top-seeded Bulldogs’ field last Saturday either, and that turned out well enough.

“It just got us excited. We gained a lot of confidence from that, and we’re able to put our focus on the next game,” Gillen said of the win over Hopewell Valley. “Throughout our season, we showed that we can really play against any team and any competition, so I think we’re just excited to be able to play those good teams.”

Gillen will continue to invite challenges, both on the field and academically, as she’s aiming for a path that will result in her becoming Dr. Gillen and practicing medicine. Her spring sport, her fall sport, or both, may help her accomplish that.

“For recruiting purposes, yeah, lacrosse is definitely number one, but for myself, I like both of them the same,” Gillen said.

Lawrenceville’s girls lacrosse team has won the last three Mercer County titles, and among Gillen’s contributions as a sophomore last spring was scooping up 32 ground balls.

Her junior lacrosse season is still months away, and so for now, her goal is to help her soccer teammates extend their run through the brackets.

“Paige is a great contributor on the team, both with her skills on the field and what she brings with her personality,” Manguson said. “She’s very outgoing, very enthusiastic. She can connect with all types of people, and that’s been really great. She’s a vocal leader. She’s someone that leads through her heart and her passion, and that becomes evident through the way she plays on the field. She’s a really important piece of the team overall.”

If evidence of that – Gillen’s importance to the outcome of the Big Red’s season – was sought, one needed only to see that it was Lawrenceville, ninth seed in tow, lining up against Allentown on Hopewell Valley’s field on Tuesday night.

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