Three finish in Top 50

The Tigers proved their strength and depth once again this weekend when the women's cross country team competed at two of the most exciting races of the season with hopes of learning the strengths and weaknesses of its league and national rivals. The team split into two divisions, one traveling to the Leopold Invitational at Lafayette in Pa., and the other group flying to Indiana to compete at the Pre-Nationals "Blue Race." The team finished second at the Leopold and ninth at Pre-Nationals.

The Princeton harriers ran outstanding races at the Leopold Invitational. With the team's top 12 runners at Pre-Nationals, the Tigers came just shy of winning the Invitational, losing to Penn, which had its entire team present at the meet.

Senior Rachel Farnsworth and junior Kim Bonner led the Tigers, both finishing in the top 10. Farnsworth finished sixth overall at 21 minutes, 3.7 seconds in the six-kilometer race with Bonner close behind, finishing seventh in 21:06.5. Though Princeton had several strong performances at the Leopold Invitational, the main focus of the weekend was on the 12 girls who traveled to Indiana to race at the Pre-Nationals Invitational — seven in the varsity race and five in the open race.

Traveling to the meet served two major purposes. The Tigers hoped for a chance to see and race on the course where the NCAA Championships will be held in November. Similarly, the team also has an opportunity to accumulate at-large bids by defeating other national-qualified teams, one of the two methods to qualify for Nationals.

The Tigers successfully became just one of six teams to place three runners in the top 50. Senior Mia Swenson led Princeton with a 40th place finish, completing the difficult course in just 20:58.9. Sophomore Jolee VanLeuven and freshman Christy Johnson rounded out the top 50, finishing 47th and 50th, respectively. But the team finished ninth overall, despite being ranked seventh in the country.

"We didn't run nearly as well as we had wanted to this weekend," senior Catha Mullen said. "A number of the girls were disappointed with their personal performances, and overall, I think we could have done better at pack running. In particular, we could definitely have used another runner up with our top four runners, who were separated by only 25 seconds."

Though the Tigers finished lower than expected, their overall score was still impressive. Seven of the eight teams ahead of the Tigers were also in the top 21 in national rankings. Princeton raced against several nationally renowned cross country programs, including No. 1 Stanford which placed four runners in the top 10. Racing against these top teams, however, provided a strong learning atmosphere.

"This is an unusual year because we have three to four freshmen in our top seven," junior Caitlin McTague said. "They lack the experience of running in huge collegiate races and are also not used to the high mileage. I think that this race was very important in introducing the freshmen to a bigger race, and we definitely all learned from the race."

The Pre-Nationals tournament helped prepare the slew of freshmen for next week's tournament, the Heptagonal Championships, or the Ivy Championships, one of the most important meets of the season.

After the team's consecutive successes at each invitational, the Tigers are ready and motivated to train and challenge Harvard, Cornell and other league rivals for the Heps title.