Men's X-C finishes third at Heptagonal Championships

Despite three All-Ivy finishes, Princeton's men's cross country team placed a disappointing third at the Heptagonal Championships, held Friday at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.

Dartmouth defended it's title with 56 points, and was led by the one-two finish of Jared Shoemakker and Tom McCardle, the latter of whom is a multiple time All-America and visibly paced his younger teammate, often turning over his shoulder to shout encouragement.

Columbia, who had beaten Princeton at the Paul Short Invitational earlier this fall, placed second with 63 points. Led by Junior Steve Sundell's third-place individual finish, the Columbia pack was much more tightly bunched than Princeton's. The spread from the first to fifth man is what cost Princeton the championship. The challenging urban course lends itself well to team running.

"All year we have been trying to keep everyone running in a group for as long into the race as possible," Princeton's fourth-place finisher junior Tristan Colangelo said. "It didn't work out that way at all at Heps. We started out as a group, but too many people fell off of the pace early on."

"The top three for us just got up with the pace and hung on. Having Jon Bell and Austin Smith working together allowed them to pass a bunch of people in the last half mile. That is what we were trying to get five guys to do together. Bell helped me out a lot going up the back hills. We just needed more guys to join Bell and Smith," said Colangelo.

Over the course of the season, five Princeton runners have broken 25:00 for eight kilometers, but on this given Friday, albeit on a vary challenging course, only Colangelo — at 24 minutes, 55 seconds — was able to. Senior captain Bell crossed the line in 25:07.3 for 9th place, followed directly by sophomore Smith in 25:07.4 for 10th place.

Princeton's demise lay in the inconsistent running of the 4th and 5th scorers. Freshman James Flannery placed 31st with a time of 25:42 while junior Jon Kielszak, the Heptagonal indoor mile champion his freshman year, rounded out the scoring with a time of 25:52.

"As a team it is certainly a disappointment to finish in third," Bell said.

"The last few years we have gone into the meet feeling that if we just run as well as we have earlier in the season that we could win. Inevitably though people haven't stepped up and we are left with a strong top three with the rest of the crew way back. Dartmouth had the top two runners in the race, which certainly helped their win. Columbia just came ready to race and placed their four-five guys way in front of our four and five."

Colangelo echoes these sentiments: "I don't think the other teams in the league ran extremely well. They ran what was expected. Some individuals had some pretty good races, but as a team competition it was up for grabs between at least four different teams. We just didn't have the four and five men that Dartmouth or Columbia had. We were the only team to have three in the top 10, but we fell off quite a bit after that.

Given the return to top form of Bell and Colangelo and the consistent maturation of Smith as a racer, Princeton has reason to be optimistic heading to districts in two weeks. To secure a bid to the national championships however, the pack that coach Brady extols will have to materialize, and five, not three, individuals will have to race to their potential and rise to the occasion of the race as district foes Georgetown and Villanova are ranked high nationally, with Villanova capturing the Big East crown this past weekend.

"I think we need to go districts knowing if we perform like we did at Heps, we will not qualify." Colangelo said. "We need to have five guys running to their potential. Whoever we take to districts will have the potential to run with the other six guys, it is just a matter of getting it done on that day."

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

"Losing to less talented teams, especially at a championship meet, is painfully unfulfilling." Smith said. "Watching Dartmouth and Columbia celebrate, very giddily, after the race is what's going to motivate me to train as hard as I can over the next year."