What a difference a year can make.
A year ago at Lehigh, the cross country teams posted impressive results, with the women edging Wisconsin by one point for the win, while the men came in eighth. This year, the Tigers were hungry for more. Last Friday in the 34th Annual Paul Short Run, the No. 13 women's team came away with a second consecutive title, and this time it simply blew away the rest of the field. The No. 27 men's team also had a tremendous performance, improving upon last year's results by finishing third.
En route to the title, the women beat, among other teams, national powerhouses No. 5 Wisconsin and No. 23 Texas Tech. In a race featuring 317 athletes from 47 different teams, all seven Tiger runners finished in the top 24. The team finished with a low score of 45, outdistancing second place West Virginia, which had 118 points, as well as the rest of the field.
"It was great to hear them announce that [we were the defending champions] before the race started," freshman Ashley Higginson said. "But going into it, I think we just wanted to show everybody that we had potential, and I was just excited to run my first college 6K."
Sophomores Christy Johnson and Liz Costello led the way with fourth and sixth place finishes respectively. Junior Jolee VanLeuven, Higginson, freshman Sarah Cummings, junior Megan Brandeland and senior Caitlin McTague rounded out the top seven for the Princeton women. Though defending national champion Sally Kipyego and Irene Kimaiyo of Texas Tech claimed the top two individual times, Johnson came in just 25 seconds behind the victor and the rest of the scoring five rolled in within a mere 34 seconds to give Princeton the victory.
The women have benefited from the influx of some talented freshmen, who have themselves benefited from the collegiate training environment.
"It's great to have a group of girls to run together with that are all so talented," Higginson said. "Plus it's so different from high school, when we usually had to run alone or with the guys' team. The team unity is great, and I think that's going to help us greatly down the line."
The men's team finished third in a field of 41 schools, with sophomore Ben Sitler and junior Michael Maag leading the way by finishing in the top five overall. Senior captain and All-American Dave Nightingale sat out as he continues his battle with IT Band Syndrome. Sitler crushed his personal record with a time of 24 minutes, 12 seconds in the 8K, coming in third individually.
"Just after the 4th mile, I got a bit sore and started to fall off [the leaders]. That was the slowest mile of the race for me, and it was tough to recollect myself for the last miles of the race," Sitler said. "Dave [Nightingale] was standing on the side of the course and yelled some encouragement about relaxing, and I listened so got back in pace and finished off with a fast last mile."
Maag finished fifth with a time of 24:21. Seniors Justin Pines, Frank Tinney, Tim O'Neill, James O'Toole, as well as freshman Dennis Walsh rounded out the seven for the men's team, with everyone finishing in the top 70 in a field of 270 runners. Princeton had all five scorers in the top 40 of the race.
In stark contrast with the young Tiger women, the men's team boasts far more upperclassmen.
"I absolutely love the guys on my team," Sitler said. "We have a great community, and the seniors provide phenomenal leadership. They set an excellent example and their experience definitely helps out come race time."
Training in the months leading up to the season has been intense for both Princeton teams.
"We've been doing one or two tempo workouts each week for over a month now," Sitler said. "Two weeks ago we did an epic workout, where everyone ran 5:00 pace per mile on the track for as long as they could hold it. Tinney, Maag and I switched off the pacing duties, and 10 guys made it 8 miles, including 3 freshmen."
The next test for both the men's and women's teams will be in two weeks when they head to Terre Haute, Ind., for the Pre-Nationals invitational. The Lavern Gibson Championship Course, site of the 2007 National Championships, will be ready with its own set of challenges for the Tigers.
But that's alright, because the Tigers are still hungry.
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