Men and women head to NCAA Championships

For the first time since 2010, both the men’s and women’s cross-country teams are traveling together to the NCAA Championships. Racing in the Mid-Atlantic Regional this pastFriday, both teams gutted it out over the tough course at Lehigh to qualify.

Taking no chances, the men placed second to grab one of the two automatic qualifying spots. The women came in fifth in a deep field but were awarded an at-large bid later in the weekend.

“After Heps [where Princeton placed second], we wanted to go to regionals and not only qualify for nationals, but prove to ourselves that we’re fit and ready to roll,” senior co-captain Alejandro Arroyo Yamin said. “Coach [Jason Vigilante] told us to run as if going to nationals depended on getting the auto spots. In the end, it was true; we wouldn’t have made it otherwise.”

Intent on getting good positioning early in the race, the men got out hard over the first mile. Arroyo Yamin set himself up in the lead, running a fast first kilometer before settling in.

“We went out really well — the best we have all season,” Arroyo Yamin said. “We wanted to get up in the top 20; we didn’t want to have to come back from having the entire Georgetown or Villanova team jump out in front of us from the start.”

Working together throughout the course of the race, Arroyo Yamin, senior Tyler Udland and junior Sam Pons set the pace for the Tigers. Racing the extended postseason 10-kilometer distance for the first time this year, the men worked on staying focused and in control through the middle miles.

“Everyone hates switching to 10K. It’s mentally tough; it’s longer than the regular 8K,” Arroyo Yamin said. “But I think our team benefits from those extra two kilometers. We’re more distance-focused. It works well with the way we progress in a race.”

Sticking close together until the finish line, the Tiger men packed all five of their scoring runners in the top 20. Udland finished first for Princeton, placing sixth in 29 minutes, 49 seconds. Arroyo Yamin came in seventh at 29:51, while Pons took 11thin 30:11.

Senior co-captain Chris Bendtsen and junior Eddie Owens finished in 17thand 19thplace, respectively. Owens, improving consistently, crossed the line in 30:25 to complete the tight 36-second one-to-five spread. Owens is also a contributor for The Daily Princetonian sports.

All five of the runners, plus sixth man junior Matt McDonald in 20thplace, earned All-Region honors. No. 20 Villanova won the meet with 34 points, while No. 15 Princeton secured second with 60.

With a young team in which no one has been to the national meet before, the Princeton women finally made it back to the big stage after a two-year dry spell. While regionals wasn’t perfect, the Tigers got the job done by placing well enough in their regular season performances to push them into the next round.

“There was a significant chance that we weren’t going to make it. On the ride back, [Director of Operations] Mike Henderson was trying to do the math as results came in from regionals across the country,” junior captain Emily de La Bruyere said. “I still don’t think it’s sunk in. There are a lot of goals we set for ourselves, but in many ways making it to nationals is the biggest one."

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In a welcome shift of race strategy from the blitz start at Heps, the regionals 6K race went out slowly. The lead pack went through the first mile in5:32, nearly 20 seconds faster than the Ivy League Championships pace.

“The goal was to run a conservative and controlled, strong race, and then let it out in the last bit. We were crawling, but it was exactly the way I wanted the race to be,” de La Bruyere said.

Putting themselves in the mix at the front, de La Bruyere and freshman Megan Curham hung on as the pace heated up.

“There was a pretty significant shift from crawling to racing,” de La Bruyere said. “The first 2K was a crawl, the second 2K was an honest pace and the last 2K was a throwdown.”

Digging deep over the last kilometer, Curham finished fifth in20:13. De La Bruyere followed shortly after in20:25, placing 13th. Both de La Bruyere and Curham earned All-Region honors.

Junior Lindsay Eysenbach finished next in 36th, trailed by sophomores Kathryn Fluehr and Kathryn Little in 38thand 43rd, respectively. Villanova surprised the crowd to narrowly win with 31 points, followed by No. 4 Georgetown with 35, No. 30 Penn State with 92, No. 24 West Virginia with 124 and then No. 22 Princeton in fifth with 135.

“We’re clearly over the moon about making it to nationals, but it wasn’t quite the showing that we think we are capable of. It almost feels like we got a second chance to prove ourselves,” de La Bruyere said. “Now we have nothing to lose. We just have to run our best.”

The Tigers have a week to recover and prepare both mentally and physically before they toe the line Saturdayin Terre Haute, Ind.

“We’re hoping that, come nationals, we can all have our day and do big things,” Arroyo Yamin said. “We’re fit, we’re ready, we’re talented — we need to believe it, because we are.”

Especially for the men, where three of the top five runners are seniors, this last race at the “Big Dance” is meaningful. Capping off one of the most consistent four-year streaks in Princeton history, the seniors have one last shot to give it the old college try.

“It’s nostalgic for me. My first cross-country race ever was at Terre Haute, and now my last cross-country race will be there as well,” Arroyo Yamin, who went to high school in Indiana, said. “It’s my chance to find out my limits and have fun with it. I want to rep Princeton and hopefully surprise myself.“

Seven Ivy League teams will be competingSaturday, one of the most in conference history. Columbia, Harvard and Dartmouth have qualified on the men’s side, while Darmouth and Cornell will compete in the women’s race.