Ferrell leads w. cross country to 18th-place finish in NCAAs

If the idea that adversity breeds toughness ever needed to be supported with a concrete example, the women's cross country team would illustrate it perfectly.

Racing against the best teams in America at the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind., the Tigers fought their way through both a talented field and difficult conditions to finish in 18th place of the 31 teams competing.

"As a whole, the team is thrilled," junior Cack Ferrell said.

Ferrell covered the six-kilometer course in 20 minutes, 56 seconds — less than a minute off the lead — to finish in 13th place of those who qualified as members of a team and 20th overall when individual runners were included. She was the first Tiger to cross the finish line.

The team's goal had been to exceed its rank of No. 22 in a national poll conducted prior to Monday's championship, and its No. 18 finish was satisfying.

Senior Austin Smith, who qualified for his last cross country race as an individual male, added to a good day for the Orange and Black by finishing 66th overall in the men's race, completing the 10-kilometer course in a time of 32:12. He was just under a minute out of the top 10.

While Princeton's men's team did not qualify for the NCAA Championships as a team, Smith finished well enough in the regional race last week to advance individually.

One challenge both Smith and the women's team faced was the terrible conditions. The races began shortly after the overnight rain had tapered off.

By race time, the course was a "very, very muddy quagmire," women's head coach Peter Farrell said.

Nonetheless, Princeton's women raced well. The spread between Ferrell and the Tigers' fifth-place finisher — junior Suzanne Andrews — was just over a minute and a half, which was close considering the conditions and size of the race.

Filling in that spread was junior Meredith Lambert, who finished 41st in the race (21:33), sophomore Mia Swenson (112th, 22:21) and senior Carrie Strickland (120th, 22:23).

Ferrell, in particular, was pleased with her performance.

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"I am so relieved to have finished [the season] on a good note," Ferrell said, noting that her performance on Monday was a nice recovery after strong but not superb races in the past few meets.

"Cack [Ferrell] really established herself [during the course of the race]," Farrell said.

With her 20th-place overall finish, Ferrell earned All-America honors in cross country for the second straight season, which go to the top 30 American finishers in the race. There were about 250 total runners in the women's race and slightly fewer in the men's.

Ferrell will lead her team again next year, forming the core of the women's squad along with Lambert and Andrews.

The race also proved the mettle of two underclassmen — Swenson, who has been the third-place finisher for the Tigers most of the year, and freshman Heather Iaturo, who finished sixth for the Tigers at NCAAs with a time of 22:41. Iaturo was the lone freshman on the varsity seven competing at NCAAs.

The Tigers will graduate two of their top seven — Strickland and senior Marian Bihrle.

Perennial Ivy League-rival Columbia — 13th in the NCAA Championships and 52 points ahead of Princeton — should be strong again next year, as the team will lose only one senior from its top seven.