Lagging fifth man dooms men's cross country at Mid-Atlantics

If placement in cross country were determined by the first four runners alone, then the men's team would have finished higher than third place in Saturday's NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional race at Lehigh University.

In the words of junior Jon Bell, "we were ecstatic with the finishes of our top 4 guys." Those four Tigers — Bell, senior Wes Stockard and sophomores Tristan Colangelo and Ryan Teising — accomplished what no other team accomplished — all of them finished in the Top 15.

The race started up a long, gradual hill, with Stockard ahead of the Princeton pack. Bell and Colangelo slowly worked their way through the thicket of runners and caught up to Stockard about two miles into the race. Then Colangelo dropped back a bit to join fellow sophomore Teising while the Bell-Stockard duo pulled ahead.

Heading into the last three to four kilometers of the 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) race, the leading four distanced themselves from the rest of the Tigers. They ran aggressively up the last big hill and then glided down a smaller slope to complete the winding, rolling course.

Bell crossed the finish line first for Princeton at 31 minutes, 1.05 seconds and placed 11th overall, followed closely by Stockard, who placed 12th overall at 31:01.65. The sophomore pair, Colangelo and Teising, finished similarly close together, coming in 14th (31:11.89) and 15th (31:14.27), respectively. All four were named to the All District team – "a nice accomplishment for each of these young men," as head coach Mike Brady said.

But the success of the team as a whole rests on the placement of the top five runners, not just the top four. The fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-place Tigers were too far behind the leading pack to help Princeton in its pursuit of a berth in the NCAA championships, given to the top two teams at Regionals.

"With our fifth guy (junior Josh Ordway) at 62nd place," Bell said, "we just didn't have a chance to compete with Villanova and Georgetown."

Villanova finished with a final score of 75, Georgetown with 90, and Princeton with 114. Comparing the individual places of each team's top five runners, which are added to calculate the total score, it is clear that the large gap between Princeton's fourth and fifth runners is indeed the Tigers' downfall. If only the top four are taken into account, Princeton comes in ahead of second-place Georgetown.

Despite the outstanding performance of the first four Tigers, with a third-place team finish and a legacy of poor performances at larger meets earlier in the season, it is unlikely that the Tigers will have a chance at an at-large bid to the national meet, and Stockard and Bell just missed qualifying as individuals.

"It summed up both the successful and unsuccessful parts of the season for this team," Stockard said. "The top four guys came out and had a spectacular performance, ran as a pack, and surprised a lot of people who doubted that Princeton had the guts to race with the best teams in the country. I was so proud to be a part of it.

"And yet, as well as we packed together up front, we found out that cross country is a team effort that everyone has to commit to with everything they have to ensure that the team accomplishes what it sets out to do."

Considering the incredible accomplishment of having four runners finish in the top 15, it is hard not to imagine where Princeton would be if injured front runner Paul Morrison had been able to compete.

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"I predict we'd be a top 10 team nationally," Bell said.

Thus this year's men's cross-country season comes to a close. Thinking about the future, Stockard said, "The guys really have to come out believing in themselves and what they can accomplish.

"When this happens, the sky will be the limit for the runners on this team."