Women harriers romp at NCAA Regionals

With a spot in the NCAA Championships on the line, the women's cross country team easily outran its competition at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships on Saturday. In a superb team effort, Princeton placed its top five runners in the top 25 in a meet featuring 182 runners on 26 teams from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Senior Cack Ferrell turned in another impressive performance, winning the individual title with a six-kilometer time of 19 minutes, 58.3 seconds, the only time posted under 20 minutes.

Junior Catha Mullen finished ninth in 20:52.1, freshman Jolee van Leuven was 13th in 21:04.9, senior Susanne Andrews was 22nd in 21:23.2 and junior Mia Swenson was 23rd in 21:24.2.

The Tigers' low score of 64 handily beat second-place Villanova and third-place Georgetown, who had scores of 98 and 103, respectively. By finishing in the top two of a regional meet, Princeton and Villanova both secured automatic bids to the NCAA Championships. That meet will be held Nov. 21 at Indiana State University, the site of last month's Pre-Nationals Invitational, where the Tigers finished seventh in the "White" race.

One year ago, Princeton finished third at regionals en route to an 18th place finish at Nationals. This year the Tigers are running even more strongly and have high expectations going into next week. They are currently ranked No. 14 in the nation, while Ferrell is generally regarded as one of the nation's top runners.

Men disappointing third

On the men's side, Princeton finished third overall, placing all five of its runners in the top 35. Led by senior Frank Macreery and sophomore David Nightingale, the Tigers, with a score of 97, finished only four points behind second-place American University. Race-winner Georgetown dominated the competition with an impressive low score of 45.

While the men'st eam did not secure an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships with a top-two finish, both Macreery and Nightingale earned spots in the race by being among the top four finishers from non-qualifying teams. Macreery finished the 10K in 30:12.2, a time which earned him fifth place, while Nightingale was right behind him in sixth with a time of 30:13.2.

The top five Tigers were freshman Michael Maag in 23rd at 21:12.1, senior Ben Stern in 30th at 31.16.8 and sophomore Frank Tinney in 33rd at 31:23.1.

After the race, the team was disappointed at missing out on second place, especially by such a close margin.

"The guys are definitely discouraged by the team scores, especially in a race where so much is on the line. But on the other hand, we realized that we've come along so far from last year," Macreery said, referring to last year's sixth place finish at Regionals. "Last year we were a non-factor in the Ivy League, and this year we were right in the thick of things. It just shows you how much we've improved."

As for his qualifying as an individual, Macreery was very pleased.

"It's going to be great to be in such an important meet," he said. "Both David and I are really excited to have that chance."

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Princeton is still eligible to receive one of the limited numbers at large bid to NCAAs. As of last night, the team was learn to hear their fate; the decision is expected to be announced this morning.