Despite tremendous individual performances, Princeton's men's and women's cross country teams were apparently beset by a Halloween curse on Friday and failed to perform as they had hoped at the Heptagonal Championships in New York City.
Senior Emily Kroshus and sophomore Cack Ferrell were the top two overall finishers in the women's race, though Columbia edged the Tigers out by five points.
On the men's side, a third-place finish from senior Tristan Colangelo couldn't save the team from a disappointing fifth-place result.
The women's team came into Friday's race with high hopes after what had proven to be a remarkable fall season to that point. The Tigers destroyed their competition at the traditional H-Y-P meet, won the Iona Invitational and Battlefield Invitational and finished an impressive sixth at the Pre-Nationals. Though they expected a challenge from Columbia, the women were poised to run for their first Heps championship in over 20 years.
Friday's run was basically a two-horse race, as none of the other Ivy League schools were anywhere close to these top teams. Dartmouth was a distant third, returning champ Yale came in fourth and 11 of the top 15 individuals finishers were from either Princeton or Columbia. The perfect weather and course conditions led to a fast race, as Kroshus posted the best individual Heps time since 1987.
The performances of Kroshus and Ferrell were certainly the highlights of the day. These two runners have consistently been at the highest level of the sport all season long. Kroshus' winning time was 17:15.8, followed by Ferrell in 17:18.5. The pair easily put away Columbia's duo of Caitlin Hickin and Lisa Stublic, who finished third and fourth, respectively.
Kroshus' victory was her fourth individual first-place finish of the season, and she has high hopes as she closes out her final cross country season over the next month.
The season is certainly not over for the women's team, and this slight disappointment surely will not derail what has been an incredible season for the Tigers. Moving on from this race, Princeton heads to NCAA Regionals in two weeks, followed by the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships and finally the NCAA Championships.
The men's team knew it would face tough competition upon arriving at Van Cortland Park in the Bronx on Friday, but Princeton had hoped for a team finish higher than fifth. In a close race, Brown won its first ever Ivy League men's cross country title, followed by Columbia, Yale and Dartmouth in second, third and fourth place, respectively. Columbia's Steve Sundell was the individual victor.
Especially painful for the Tigers to stomach was finishing only nine points behind second-place Columbia. Two weeks earlier, at the Pre-National meet in Iowa, Princeton's 14th place finish beat Columbia's 20th by over 100 points. On Friday, the tables were turned.
Colangelo, Princeton's sole First Team All-Ivy runner, ran a great race with a time of 24:47.4 for the eight-kilometer course to take third place for the Tigers. Colangelo, the clear team leader, has put together an impressive season this year, with several top ten finishes to date. Unfortunately, on Friday he just didn't have the support he needed for a team win.
Rounding out the scoring for Princeton were senior Peter Cioni, who finished in 19th, sophomore Frank Macreery (21st), sophomore Ben Stern (26th), and junior Austin Smith (28th).
Smith's finish was the most disappointing for the Tigers, as he has consistently been the number two, or even number one, runner in previous races this season. While a stellar race from him wouldn't have won the race for Princeton, the team certainly felt the effects of his poor performance.
As with the women, the men's team still has its most important races left in the season.
"The goal is to bring the entire team to the NCAA championships," head coach Mike Brady said. NCAA regionals are on Nov. 15th and the championships the Monday before Thanksgiving (Nov. 24).
Heps were a mixture of individual success and team disappointment, and both teams will surely profit from the experience as the stakes get higher in NCAA competition later this month.
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