Both the men's and women's cross-country teams ran in Pre-Nationals last weekend, in one of the last regular meets of the season. Both teams came in looking for a big performance, and both teams left slightly disappointed. The men's team finished 10th overall, while the women finished 17th.
Depth proved to be the problem for both teams, with the top few runners crossing the finish line unusually far ahead of their teammates. Such a result comes as a surprise, since the top seven runners on both squads had proven to be uncharacteristically even this season, training together and finishing as a pack in earlier races.
The men's race took place in Indiana, on the Vern Gibson Course that will host the 2002 NCAA championships roughly a month from now. The team was lead by junior Tristan Colangelo, who crossed the finish line in 38th place at 24 minutes, 50 seconds. Freshman James Flannery was next for the Tigers, finishing in 25:00 in 55th place.
Sophomore Austin Smith and Senior Josh Ordway followed closely behind, in 25:03 and 25:09, respectively. Smith placed 60th, while Ordway placed 69th.
Senior Mike Baird placed 104th, with a time of 25:29, while juniors Jon Kieliszak and Jeff DiChiara finished 113th and 118th with respective times of 25:32 and 25:34.
"The teams performance this weekend was only mediocre," said DiChiara. "Our strength all season has been in our ability to have all seven guys run in a solid pack. This weekend this wasn't the case, with our last few guys falling of the pace. This all being said, we did beat some nationally ranked teams and have a good shot at scoring a couple of at-large points [to help qualify for nationals]."
The Princeton women experienced a similar result, with a decent-sized gap in between the first clump of runners to finish and the second. Junior Emily Kroshus was once again the top Princeton finisher, coming in 28th place with a time of 21:16. Junior Laura Petrillo continued her strong series of performances as well, placing 68th with a time of 21:46.
Junior Becca Snyder was next to score for the Tigers, placing 101st in 22:08. Freshman Meredith Lambert finished just afterwards, in 115th place with a final time of 22:14.
Senior Sarah Rivlin finished in 149th place with a time of 22:31, and Junior Krystel Adler crossed the finish line in 22:48, good for 173rd place. Junior Pilar Marin placed 174th with a time of 22:49.
"We went with the intention of a top-15 finish, so to finish 17th is a little disappointing," said Kroshus. "We thought going into the meet that our strength would be our depth, since our second runner and our seventh runner all train at the same level, but what ended up costing us was the lack of a strong fifth runner."
Nevertheless, one slightly disappointing race does not make a season, and the Tigers do have the talent to bounce back from the slight setback they experienced in In-diana. Heptagonals are approaching quickly, and both Tiger squads will need solid performances from their entire teams to win out in an exceptionally competitive league this year.
"Heps will be a tough meet, with Dartmouth, Navy, Columbia, and, of course, Princeton all vying for the top spot," said DiChiara.
"Some people had bad days, but everyone's very fit, and we're all excited to race to our potential at Heps," said Kroshus.
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