'Steady progress' earns third place for w. cross country

Steady progress may not make for highlight reel-worthy footage, but it makes for winning seasons.

This fundamental of sports certainly applie to the women's cross country team this season. Despite coming into the season without one of their top runners and having to rely on freshmen more so than they would perhaps like, the Tigers are indeed making steady progress as a team, finishing third last weekend at the Paul Short Invitational.

The Tigers claimed two spots in the top 20, with junior Emily Kroshus and freshman Meredith Lambert placing seventh and 18th, respectively. Kroshus finished in 21 minutes, 28.59 seconds, while Lambert came in just a half-minute later at 22:03.9.

Other Princeton athletes who placed included sophomore Randy Buzzell, who crossed the finish line in 26th place with a time of 22:17.34 and junior Krystal Adler just behind her in 28th place at 22:19.43. Senior Sarah Rivlin also finished in that group, coming in at 29th place with a time of 22:19.93.

Junior Pilar Marin crossed the finish line in 41st place at 22:35.53, and junior Kate Reid placed just behind her in 42nd place with a time of 22:36.19.

Kroshus and Lambert finished one-two on the Princeton team at the last meet the Tigers attended as well, and look to take up leading roles on the team as it moves into the crucial middle phase of the season. Thus far, performances have been strong, but few would argue that there is no room for improvement.

Princeton has improved over the off-season, however, and most noticeably in that nearly all of the team's top runners are competitive with each other. In previous years, a single standout or two would often far outdistance the rest of the Tigers in terms of performance.

"We're all running so close together this year that we're able to push each other and run in groups like we never have before," said Rivlin. "And we have two superstars leading us, Emily Kroshus and then Meredith Lambert, who's a freshman and a total surprise. I have a really good feeling about this season."

"I'm so excited to be running for Princeton among such a wonderful group of girls," said Lambert. "One of our strengths as a team is that we have a number of runners running at the same level, so that we are able to run in tight groups during races, which significantly impacts the final score in cross country."

Lambert's performance thus far has been superlative, especially for a freshman, and she looks to be doing a fine job filling the shoes left by the departed Catherine Casey '02.

Rivlin agreed that the team has a lot of potential.

"I'm a senior and this is without question the strongest I have ever seen this team look," Rivlin said.

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The Tigers are an extremely deep team, as all of their top seven runners were under 18:26 in the first 5K of the season.

Princeton races in a tough division, however, and the Tigers must be ready to step up their effort when the time comes. Yale, Cornell, Brown, and possibly Columbia are all nationally ranked, making Princeton's goal of a Heptagonals title that much more difficult. But if Princeton can maintain the level of improvement the team has seen over the last several weeks, such a title may begin to seem more and more feasible.