Pennington hits a trifecta - plus one

Amber Brooks, Alexa Carugati, Phil Wood and Heidi Sabatura

By Steve Sherman; Sports Editor

The Pennington School is going for a trifecta - plus one - Wednesday morning in athletics when the private school in the Garden State signs four - count ‘em - four student athletes to Division I National Letters of Intent.
Three of the athletes are girls soccer players - members of the state championship team that won a record sixth consecutive NJISAA Prep A title last fall.
The other is Philip Wood, of Yardley, who is one of the best distance runners in the country. Headed to the University of Texas, Wood will join Amber Brooks, Heidi Sabatura and Alexa Carugati. All four are set to sign commitment letters in Sparks Gymnasium Wednesday (Feb. 4, weather permitting).
Come this fall, Carugati of Newtown, along with Sabatura of Lawrenceville, will play for the Villanova Wildcats.
Brooks, a New Hope resident who captained the US National U-17 team to a silver medal late last year in the World Cup, will play for the defending national champion University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Tarheels are coming off a record 20th consecutive national championship.
Wood Takes the Fifth
Late last year, Wood finished in fifth place in the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships (FLCC) Northeast Regional held Nov. 29 at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, N.Y.
Wood's time of 15:42 was only 21 seconds behind winner Solomon Haile, of Silver Spring, Md.