Coming off a disappointing seventh-place finish last week at the Heptagonal Championships, the women's cross country team headed into the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships last weekend with hopes of avenging its recent loss and repeating the extraordinary performance it had at last year's meet.
The Tigers placed fourth in 1999, narrowly missing an at-large bid to the national championships. This year, the squad finished ninth out of 24 teams competing in the 6K race held at Penn State.
This year's race was a full kilometer longer than the usual 5K distance the athletes ran throughout the year and in the district meet last year.
As she did last fall, senior Carrie Miller rose to the occasion to lead the Tigers with a 22nd-place finish in a time of 21 minutes, 48 seconds. And like last year, Miller struggled at the start of the season only to be Princeton's top finisher in the last race.
Cream of the crop
"I get excited toward the end of the season," said Miller, whose goal was to make the All-District team by placing in the top 25. "[The district meet] is a great race."
Miller was followed by juniors Catherine Casey (29th, 22:15), Holly Huffman (52nd, 22:41) and Emily Eynon (59th, 22:47). Freshman Rebecca Snyder (73rd, 23:08) rounded out the top five.
Earlier this week, it was questionable whether Casey, who was forced to miss Heps because of an injured hip, would even be able to compete. She was sidelined for the week before Heps and modified her running last week.
However, Casey said she was unsure if she would run well in the race.
"I was pretty nervous before the race because my training was broken up," Casey said. "It took a lot of work to convince myself I could run well. I was disappointed that I couldn't do it at Heps so I wanted to run well here. I knew before that this was the last important race."
Also missing from the Tigers' lineup were junior Mattie Godzala, who was diagnosed Wednesday with mononucleosis, and freshman phenom Emily Kroshus, who is sidelined with pneumonia. Kroshus has led the Tigers throughout most of the season.
"Certainly not having Emily Kroshus hurt," head coach Peter Farrell said. "She's a low number. Even with a bad season, she's a low number."
Georgetown and West Virginia finished first and second, respectively, grabbing the two automatic qualifying spots for the NCAA Championships Monday in Ames, Iowa. Last year's runner-up, Villanova, placed third and will likely receive an at-large bid. The Wildcats were led by individual winner Ann McGran-ahan, who finished in a time of 20:32.
'Tough year'
Farrell summed up this season by calling it "a tough year" with several athletes plagued by illness and injury. He added that the team would try to build a stronger base early in the season next year and look for weeks when they could cut back on mileage.
Though they will not compete at the NCAA Championships, the Tigers still have one final meet. The freshmen and sophomores will compete at the Eastern College Athletic Conference championships Sunday at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, N.Y.
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