Generally, when a team enters a competition without its top 10 athletes, it will be lucky to merely escape being on the wrong end of a rout. Evidently, no one shared this piece of conventional wisdom with the women's cross country team, which finished sixth overall at the 2005 Eastern College Athletic Conference cross country championships at Van Cortlandt Park on Saturday morning. A few hours later, the men's team finished 13th in the IC4A Championship at the same venue.
The women's team took to the line without 10 of its regular runners, who skipped the meet in preparation for the NCAA championship meet on Monday at Indiana State. In their absence, the Tigers relied on the legs of two of the team's most consistent performers, sophomore Kim Bonner and junior Claire Filloux.
Bonner led all Princeton runners with a time of 18 minutes, 37.9 seconds, which placed her 18th overall. Close behind her was Filloux, whose time of 18:42.7 earned her 25th place. Rounding out the top finishes for the Tigers were junior Rachel Farnsworth and sophomore Amanda Smith, who placed 33rd and 34th, respectively, and senior Allison Warren, who was the fifth fastest finisher for Princeton, coming in at 45th place.
The Tigers' combined score of 154 placed them solidly in the middle of the 12- team field. Cornell won the overall team competition.
The men's team also entered Saturday's race two runners down, as senior Frank Macreery and sophomore Dave Nightingale opted not to run in preparation for Monday's NCAA championship. Running without those two strong contributers, Princeton finished 13th overall in a 20-team field, buoyed by strong individual performances from several runners.
The team was led by senior Wayne Hopp, who finished 33rd overall in a 174-person field with a time of 25:53.2. Junior Paul Rosa trailed his teammate by slightly more than 10 seconds to take 49th overall. Coming in behind Rosa were junior Jeff Byrne and senior Charles Ballew at 73rd and 78th overall, respectively.
Saturday's races constituted the final cross country event of the year for those not competing in Nationals.
Still, most of the runners will not get time off to rest, as there is significant overlap between the cross country and indoor track team memberships.
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