Women's cross country wins University Race at ECAC meet

The men's and women's cross country teams capped their seasons Saturday with solid performances at Van Cortlandt Park. The women's team came home first in the University Race at the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships while the men placed seventh of 16 teams in the IC4A Championship Race.

Because this year was the first time the IC4As and ECACs were run after the NCAA district meet, the races served as final performances for teams that missed qualifying for the NCAA Championships and for junior varsity runners of qualifying teams. Though several schools ran their full varsity squads, Princeton held out most if its top runners to rest for the upcoming winter season.

"It was nice to win a meet at the end of the season," coach Peter Farrell said, "but the field was not that strong."

For the women, however, the race was the first major invitational win this season.

"We came into the race looking to win," said sophomore Laura Shackelton, who finished second for the Tigers. "We knew we had a shot at it, and everyone was really excited about it because it was the last race of the season."

Redemption

Junior Emily Eynon — who ran the race because she plays squash during the winter — paced the Tigers to a 50-point margin over runner-up Seton Hall by placing fifth in a time of 18 minutes, 47 seconds in the 5K race. In her last race until spring track, Eynon aimed to redeem herself from an unfortunate 59th place finish last week at the NCAA district meet. Last week, she experimented with a different tactic by starting out faster than usual instead of holding back in the early stages of the race. This week, she returned to her accustomed style and ended the season on a high note.

"I went out way too hard last week and died," she said. "On Saturday, I raced the way I know how to race, and it worked."

Eynon was followed by Shackelton (19:13) and sophomore Sarah Rivlin (19:24) in 21st and 26th places, respectively. Next came a trio of freshmen — Kristee Sherry (19:31), Laura Petrillo (19:40) and Katie Reid (19:58) — and sophomore Becca Hylander (20:01).

The men continued to run close together in a stacked championship race, in which varsity squads from Penn State and Cornell grabbed the top two spots. Junior Kevin Gallagher and sophomore Josh Ordway recovered from early season injuries to become the first two Tigers to cross the finish line. Gallagher missed most of the indoor and outdoor track seasons last year with a stress fracture and sprained his ankle at the end of August. Ordway was sidelined throughout the summer and well into September with a bone inflammation.

"I was surprised to be running cross country or indoor track at all," Ordway said.

But the pair proved they could bounce back quickly by dropping under 26 minutes in the 8K race and registering their personal best times on the course. Gallagher finished 38th with a time of 25:57 — one second and three places ahead of Ordway.

"I was hoping my season was going to come together," Gallagher said. "The team ran together for the most part and that was how I was able to improve my time. It's hard to please runners, but this was definitely an upswing for my season."

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Less than 40 seconds separated the Tigers' top five with freshman Jonathan Kieliszak, sophomore Bruce Hancock and junior Dan Babich taking the final scoring positions.

Strong performance

The men only fell to two junior varsity squads from Villanova and Georgetown, whose varsity teams are ranked higher than the Tigers in national polls. The Wildcats and the Hoyas placed sixth and seventh, respectively, at yesterday's NCAA Championships in Ames, Iowa.

Meanwhile, Arkansas picked up the men's NCAA title, while Keith Kelly of Providence took home the individual crown. In the women's race, Kara Wheeler led Colorado to the team championship.

The Tigers now have three weeks off from racing before returning to indoor competition Dec. 10 for the New Year Invitational at Jadwin Gym. While most cross country runners will sit out the first meet of the indoor season, the track and field athletes will make their debut for their first test of the season. The cross country runners will reunite with the track and field athletes Jan. 12-13 for the Armory Invitational in New York.