Before Saturday's meet at the Princeton Battlefield, head coach Pete Farrell told the women's cross country team to run as a pack.
Coach Farrell got just what he wanted and then some. Not only did the Tigers run close together, but they ran close together all the way to the the front of the crowd.
Cross country started the year with its best foot forward by defeating all three of its opponents this Saturday at the Princeton Battlefield Invitational. The Tigers took on and defeated La Salle, Manhattan and Rutgers.
The Princeton women had eight of their athletes finish the race among the top 10. Senior Emily Kroshus came in first with a time of 17 minutes, 20 seconds. Sophomore Meredith Lambert finished second, just nine seconds behind her teammate.
"I felt stronger and I knew I was in better shape," Lambert said of her time. "I didn't know how much better I would do. I just wanted to break 18."
Both scores show significant improvement from last year's Battlefield Invitational, when Kroshus came in third with a time of 17:58 and Lambert right behind in fourth with a time of 18:02.
Kroshus, the only member of the outdoor track team to advance to nationals last spring, had yet another feat to be proud of this weekend. Her time Saturday was just one second off the course record.
The Tigers swept positions four through nine, with senior Laura Petrillo, freshmen Mia Swenson and Claire Filloux, juniors Marian Bihrle and Carrie Strickland and senior Kate Reid crossing the line in that order.
Swenson and Filloux are new to the team this year but have already shown themselves to be valuable additions.
Strickland, although only a junior, is also a newcomer of sorts. She joined the team as a freshman but took last year off. Strickland has made a strong comeback this year with an eighth place finish overall.
La Salle's Klick claimed third place. Rutgers' Dejesus took ninth, but Princeton's third opponent, Manhattan, had no top 10 finishers.
The men's team, however, was not quite as successful at the Battlefield. The Princeton men split their meets with a win over Manhattan and a loss to La Salle.
"It really deflated our early season optimism," junior Austin Smith said. "[But] what more incentive [do you need to do better] than to get your ass handed to you? If anything is certain, though, it is that early season performances mean next to squat."
The men had three runners place in the top 10, one fewer than last year. Building off a strong sophomore season, Smith found himself in a familiar position Saturday: at the head of the pack. He led the Tigers again with a time of 25:14, less than a second behind La Salle's Bryan Skelly. Smith's second-place time was two seconds better than his first-place time at the meet last year.
"We raced like a bunch of schoolgirls," Smith said. "We just couldn't pull it together. That was disappointing."
Senior Tristan Colangelo was the next Princeton athlete to cross the finish line with a time of 25:30, taking sixth place. Senior Jeff DiChiara came in six seconds later, garnering the ninth position overall, six seconds and six spots down from last year.
"We were hurt by the fact that we didn't run in a pack, which La Salle did well," DiChiara said. "We ran as a bunch of individuals instead of a pack. We can learn that from La Salle. We are very capable of doing that."
The men's next cross country meet will be in two weeks when it travels to Lock Haven, Pa., to participate in the Lock Haven Invitational. The Tigers will face some of the teams from their district at Lock Haven and will need to race well in order to to qualify for the NCAA Regionals in November.
The women's team will race at the Iona Meet of Champions in New Rochelle, N.Y., in two weeks.
"We're really excited," Lambert said of the young season. "I think what we did yesterday is indicative of what we can do this season."
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