No. 6: Lynn Jennings '83

Though Lynn Jennings '83 would go on to capture three cross country world championships and nine national titles and set 10 American records after graduating from Princeton, her success didn't come without a fight. As a Tiger, she struggled to live up to her own high expectations.

It was obvious from a young age that the New England native was a natural runner. At age 17, she unofficially ran the Boston Marathon in two hours, 46 minutes — the third-fastest women's time of the day, which would have been a record for her age group. This precocious and audacious feat resulted in a knee injury that was the only serious ailment of her career, a remarkable record for such a demanding sport. In her senior year of high school, she set the national high school indoor track record in the 1500-meter run, which, almost thirty years later, has yet to be broken.

So it wasn't a big surprise when Jennings placed third at the Athletic Intercollegiate Association for Women Cross Country Championships and received All-Ivy honors in the fall of her freshman year. Her coach at Princeton, Peter Farrell, who is still the head coach of women's track and cross country, attributed her performance to a strong work ethic and extraordinary fortitude.

"She was the kind of kid who woke up the morning of a race and saw it was snowing and said, 'Great,' " Farrell said.

But it wasn't long before Jennings reached an impasse. Her sophomore and junior years were disappointing and the next year, 1981, she took a leave of absence, hoping to rediscover her motivation for running.

When Jennings returned to Princeton in the fall of 1982 as a senior, she was a new runner. Rejuvenated, she placed first in both the 5000m at Heptagonals and the 3000m at the ECAC championships. She went on to finish third in the 3000m at the NCAA Championships, leading the Tigers in their first-team NCAA tournament appearance. By the spring of her senior year, she had racked up four outdoor track Ivy titles, three cross country Ivy titles, two indoor track Ivy titles and three first-team All-Ivy awards. Still, she wasn't satisfied. Jennings left Old Nassau frustrated, but determined to do better.

"What happened at Princeton fueled me very fervently to be a very successful adult athlete, so the disappointments and frustrations, which were all my own, pretty much helped me fire up my career as an adult," Jennings told Track & Field Magazine last month. "I was an extremely hungry, motivated, passionate adult athlete, and I think my disappointments at Princeton fueled that."

Her professional career got off to an equally rocky start. In 1984, a year after graduation, she suffered the biggest setback of her career: finishing last in the Olympic trials and failing to qualify for the 1984 Olympic Games.

Path to stardom

The turning point in Jennings' career came in 1985 after she won her first national title in cross country. Thereafter, her career blossomed, soon exceeding even her own expectations.

She made her first of three Olympic appearances in 1988, finishing sixth in the 10,000m. But the climax of Jennings' running career came in the early 90s. She won three consecutive world cross country championships from 1990-92 and was catapulted to stardom after taking home the bronze medal in the 10,000m at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.

Her long list of accolades doesn't stop there, though. At the 1993 Indoor World Championships, she finished third, and two years later, she placed second in the same event. She won her final cross country national title in 1996.

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Jennings still runs competitively to this day and has been an outspoken critic of doping, which has riddled the sport in recent years. In November, she was inducted into the National Distance Running Hall of Fame.

"She's the most talented person I've ever worked with," said Farrell, who has coached Princeton's women's cross country and track for 28 years. "She had a phenomenal depth to her and an inner drive and toughness that were unparalleled."

Truly great athletes are never satisfied. Jennings is one of those athletes. Her records, which remain largely intact, stand as benchmarks in the career of one of Princeton's all-time greatest athletes and the best female distance runner in American history.