On one of the greatest days of Princeton cross country history, the Tigers experienced some of their worst luck. In the NCAA Championships yesterday at Terre Haute, Ind., the No. 4 women's team finished 14th, hurt badly by sophomore Liz Costello's sudden case of critical dehydration. Costello had won the Ivy Heptagonals, placed second at Regionals and led previously undefeated Princeton to its No. 4 ranking.
"They said it was dehydration or something, but I find that hard to believe," Costello said. "I'd been drinking what I usually drink, eating what I usually eat and sleeping the same amount. This has never happened before."
Costello hit the 4K mark at 13 minutes, 36 seconds, on pace for a top-30 finish overall. She ended up completing the 6K course in 23:28.
"I didn't really start off well, and when I got to the last stretch, there was just no more kidding myself; my legs just completely gave out," Costello said.
Sophomore Christy Johnson led the Tigers with a 41st-place finish overall in 21:07. Freshman Ashley Higginson was second on the team in 69th place with a time of 21:32. Junior Megan Brandeland, freshman Sarah Cummings and senior Caitlin McTague all crossed the line within eight seconds of one another, rounding out the scorers for the Tigers. Junior Jolee VanLeuven finished in 22:27. Princeton, however, was not the only school to get slower times than usual.
"The weird part is that our times were worse than at pre-nationals, and this was [the case] for a good majority of the teams," Johnson said. "It could have been nerves, I guess, but it's really odd and made for a generally frustrating race."
"I think we were [in] fourth place as a team until the 4K mark or so, and we just had a tough 2,000 meters at the end," Brandeland said.
In the men's 10K race, senior Dave Nightingale finished 73rd with a time of 30:56. Sophomore Ben Sitler came in 212th overall in 32:23. Despite being knocked down a few times, junior Michael Maag ran a tremendous race, finishing 59th overall in 30:44.
"Around the 1.5 mile mark, two guys went down in front of me, and I couldn't really help tripping over them," Maag said. "Then I got knocked down a couple of times trying to get back up. Falling down in a race is definitely not common, but it's also not a surprise in cross country."
These incidents demonstrate the additional intensity faced by each of the runners at the championship meet.
"Nationals is always tough. You can be running well and be in 50th position, and it's just really hard to relax like that," Sitler said. "Our strategy was just to run easy and relaxed for the first 5K, and then move up hard from 6-9K. But that's a lot easier said than done when you're racing against the best runners in the nation."
This was the third national championship race for Nightingale, who qualified for All-American status with a 30th place finish last year.
"I guess last year's finish was what I tried to accomplish today," Nightingale said. "I tried to get out in the top 50 or 60 at the 5K, and then make a strong move in the latter half of the race. But I didn't quite have the legs to go all the way though."
Oregon won the men's race with a team score of 85, while senior Josh McDougal of Liberty won the individual 10K race in 29:22.4. On the women's side, pre-race favorite Sally Kipyego took the lead right from the start and never looked back. The junior from Texas Tech finished in a blistering 19:30.9. In the team competition, Stanford edged out Oregon for its third consecutive national title, finishing with a low score of 145.
Despite yesterday's disappointing results, both teams can look forward to a bright future. Nightingale, McTague and seven of their classmates will leave the tradition and success of Princeton cross country in the hands of a young and talented generation of Tigers.
"I just couldn't be more motivated for indoor and outdoor track now," Costello said. "At this point, I just want to get back out there and start preparing for the next season."
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