Women defeat 22 teams in Bronx showdown

With the summer winding down and the fall athletic season beginning, the men's and women's cross country teams already appear to be in mid-season form. At the Fordham Cross Country Invitational in the Bronx, N.Y., this past weekend, the men finished second out of 22 teams, while the women dominated a 23-team field in cruising to a first-place finish.

The women's team ended up with a final score of 20 with its top five runners finishing in positions two through six. Penn — the only other Ivy League opponent in the race — finished a distant second with a score of 85. Rounding out the top five were DePaul, Northwestern and Holy Cross.

The Princeton women ran in a pack throughout the race. Sophomore Christy Johnson, the Tigers' top finisher, finished in second place with a time of 18 minutes, 43 seconds. Junior Megan Brandeland, sophomore Liz Costello, freshman Ashley Higginson and senior Caitlin McTague all finished in 18:44 to take the next four spots.

"Saturday was a terrific exercise in group running," women's head coach Peter Farrell said.

"We've never had a pack stay together that long at that pace. Six at 18:43 is impressive. I felt the group was in control and was running well within itself. [Senior Heather] Iatauro and [freshman Liz] Deir also had nice performances."

The last three women's runners also had impressive performances. Freshman Sarah Cummings finished in seventh right behind the pack with a time of 18:45, while Iatauro and Deir finished in the top 12 with times around the 19-minute mark.

The women next face Harvard and Yale on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. on the cross country course at the West Windsor Fields.

"Harvard and Yale should be interesting," Farrell said. "Yale has last year's winner back in Lindsay Donaldson — who also finished third at NCAAs. Neither team should be as deep as we are, and we will probably employ group running tactics again."

On the men's side, the Tigers finished with a score of 50, second only to Ivy League rival Penn's score of 42. While the Tigers performed well, they were outdone by the only Ancient Eight foe in the competition.

Navy also had a solid race, finishing just four points behind the Orange and Black with a final score of 54.

Men's head coach Steve Dolan ultimately wasn't too worried about finishing behind the Quakers.

"[Penn] certainly has a very strong team, but I don't think that the early season is such a great indicator of where we'll be at the end of the season," Dolan said.

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Sophomore Ben Sitler finished in eighth place with a time of 26:42 while his teammates senior Frank Tinney, junior Michael Maag and senior Tim O'Neill were right behind in 26:43.

Freshman Dennis Walsh had a good showing, finishing just a second behind at 26:44. Two other top-15 finishers for the Tigers were sophomores Tim Branigan and Elliot Welder — both at 26:56.

"We asked our guys to run as a group," Dolan said. "I think they did a great job of that, keeping the group together."

The men will race again at Lehigh's Paul Short Run on Sept. 28, at which point they will be less than a month away from the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships.

"The Ivy League looks very strong this year, and it will be competitive throughout the season," Dolan said. "We won the league last year and would like to defend our title."