Freshman van Leuven making immediate impact

Though freshman athletes often spend more time sitting on the pine than competing, it's far from unheard-of for a rookie to emerge as an integral part of a successful college team.

So though she may not be getting the attention that Marvin Williams did in helping the North Carolina men's basketball team claim the NCAA title last spring, freshman Jolee van Leuven finds herself in good company.

Stepping up and contributing strong finishes ever since she arrived on campus, van Leuven has scored for the Tigers' women's cross country team in all four meets in which she has run. Between the Griak Invitational on Sept. 24 and Princeton's most recent meet at the Pre-Nationals Invitational on Oct. 15, van Leuven has dropped 50 seconds from her six kilometer time. She finished fourth for the Tigers and 61st in a field of more than 200 runners at Pre-Nats, propelling Princeton to a seventh-place finish.

Yet when asked about her accomplishments, van Leuven is modest and quick to credit the team's other runners. According to her, the key to getting better is having good teammates with whom to work and gain motivation.

"It's helped a lot to have other girls with whom I can run," van Leuven said. "It's good to have someone just a little bit faster, so you can work to them and push yourself just a little bit harder."

Though she regularly finishes ahead of many of the team's upperclassmen, her teammates don't begrudge her success, and van Leuven says she still looks up to them as role models.

Van Leuven's main motivation for working hard is simple but important.

"I love running," she said. "I love the sport — it's what I want to be doing while I'm here. I love to run, and I just want to contribute to the team as much as possible."

Since coming to Princeton, van Leuven has thrived in the team aspect of cross country. Before she donned the Orange and Black, she had never been able to run specifically for a team. Now, she feels that the contribution to a team is the most important part of her running.

"Before Princeton, all that really mattered were my personal accomplishments," van Leuven said. "I didn't have that team aspect. I was always running as an individual. Now there is so much more on the line when I run. Before, how I ran only affected me. Now it affects the six other girls in the race with me, as well as the many others on the team as a whole. It's not so much my success as it is everybody's success. Cross country is finally a team sport for me, and I just love it."

Princeton has a tough task ahead with Ivy League Heptagonals on Friday. Like many athletes, the Tigers are spending much of this week resting for the big meet.

"Last week we did a hill workout to prepare for the course," van Leuven said. "But now we're tapering our workouts a bit so we'll be fresh on Friday. Also, coach is letting us do some of our easy runs on our own so we aren't as stressed out during this [midterm] week."

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"We're doing a few tuneup workouts," head coach Peter Farrell said. "But mostly, we're trying to rest. You've got to be well-rested, and you've got to get sleep. And I know this is a tough week for them, so I'm trying to make it as stress-free as possible."

Van Leuven and her teammates hope that this preparation will will provide them with the energy to outrun their nationally-ranked opponents. Though Columbia, No. 7 nationally, is favored to win, the No. 18 Tigers expect to have a chance to push the Lions for the title.

"Columbia is definitely favored right now," Farrell said. "Sure, we're the underdogs, but we're planning on catching them. In a race like that we just have to run the race we've been running all year and see how things finish. But we want to win."