Princeton's men's and women's cross country teams took to the road this weekend in their first away meets of the season. The men participated in the Lock Haven Invitational in Lock Haven, Pa., where the team finished second behind the West Virginia Track Club. The women won again, taking first at the Iona Meet of Champions in Van Cortland Park, NY.
Women's cross country was without sophomore Meredith Lambert this weekend due to injury, but were boosted by the return of sophomore Cack Ferrell.
Ferrell was unable to compete at the Tigers' first meet, the Princeton Battlefield Invitational, due to injury but had no problem getting back into the groove.
"I'm pleased with how it turned out," Ferrell said. "It was a 6k and meets are usually 5k, and coming off an injury, I didn't have a time goal or place in mind. I just wanted to go out and have [a time] to work off of for other meets."
Ferrell set the bar for herself high by finishing second overall, nine seconds behind senior Emily Kroshus, who had a time of 21:32.3.
Kroshus also finished first at the Princeton Battlefield Invitational. There, Lambert had finished nine seconds behind Kroshus. One can only anticipate the strides the Tigers will be able to make next week at the traditional Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet (HYPs) when both sophomore sensations make their debut together. Princeton won the 18-team meet with a combined score of 36. Coming in second and third were Yale and Pittsburgh with scores of 119 and 181, respectively.
Also scoring for the Tigers were freshman Mia Swenson in seventh, junior Carrie Strickland in 12th, freshman Claire Filloux in 14th, senior Laura Petrillo in 16th, and junior Marian Bihrle in 20th.
"The depth of the team is really impressive," Ferrell said. "not just the top five are winning, but the whole team."
The men at Lock Haven
The West Virginia Track Club won the 16-team Lock Haven Invitational with a score of 32 by taking the first, third and fifth individual positions. Although Penn and Lock Haven also had an athlete each place in the top five, they were unable to finish well as a team. The Tigers took the sixth, seventh, ninth, 12th, 16th, 19th and 22nd individual positions for a team score of 50 to earn second. Penn State and Lock Haven took third and fourth with scores of 102 and 118, respectively.
Junior Austin Smith finished sixth and senior Tristan Colangelo took seventh individually. Senior Jeff DiChiara was ninth overall. The other top finishers for the Tigers were all sophomores — Frank McCreary (12th), Adam Ludwig (16th), Eric Beights (17th) and Wayne Hopp (22nd).
The Tigers were unable to finish better because they failed to race together as a pack, a problem they had in the season opener.
Although Princeton started off the 8k event well by staying together, it was not able to sustain it for the entire duration of the meet.
"We did well for about three miles," Colangelo said. "It was in mile four that it broke down a little bit. It was definitely an improvement [but] we need to pack run a little more. Still, we accomplished our goal. We've never run this course before, and this is the site of our district meet. Our objective was to see how it was."
Looking Ahead
The men's team got a look at two of the teams it will see at the NCAA Regionals in November: Penn State and Bucknell. The team next races at the Paul Short Invitational in Bethlehem, Pa., on Oct. 4.
The women will next travel to Cambridge, Mass., to participate in HYPs. HYPs are, admittedly, not an important meet in terms of standing, but are definitely important for bragging rights.
"Pride-wise, this meet is very important to us," Ferrell said.
The last time the Tigers won HYPs was in 1998. In the past three HYPs Yale has emerged victorious each time. But two things are different this year. First, the Eli's Katie and Laura O'Neill will not be running. In the past two HYPs, the O'Neills finished first and second overall. Secondly, in this last meet, Princeton defeated all but two of the teams it will face at the Heptagonal Championships — including Yale. The only teams not present were Penn and Columbia.
With the O'Neills gone and the team as a whole running well, this may very well be the year that the Tigers bring back the HYPs.
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