Cross country: Princeton women second at Notre Dame meet

The men’s cross country team, meanwhile, finished 11th overall, with senior Michael Maag posting the eighth-best individual time.

On the women’s side, the race featured a deep field that included a dozen nationally ranked teams. A relatively flat course and almost perfect conditions resulted in a number of fast times for the five-kilometer race.

Remarkably, the Tigers’ top six finishers all crossed the line within 15 seconds of each other, and all five scorers placed in the top 33. Princeton finished second in the team competition, 36 points behind powerhouse No. 2 Florida State.

“I guess we did about what was expected of us,” said junior Reilly Kiernan, who finished fifth for the Tigers. “We were really hoping to run with Florida State and prove that we belong in the top echelon of teams in the nation. It’s pretty impressive that even when some girls have off days, we can still beat 10 nationally ranked teams.”

Kiernan is also a senior writer for The Daily Princetonian.

The Tigers placed six runners in front of the Seminoles’ fifth-place finisher, which is usually a formula for victory. The difference was that FSU placed two runners in the top 10 overall, making up for its fifth finisher’s 40th-place showing.

Head coach Peter Farrell said he was very happy “to have beaten such powers as Michigan, Providence and Illinois,” though he recognized that there is much room for improvement, especially if Princeton hopes to catch Florida State by the end of the year.

“We really didn’t maximize effort over the weekend,” Farrell said.

In the individual standings, freshman Alex Banfich led all Tigers with her 16th-place finish in 17 minutes, three seconds. Senior co-captain Megan Brandeland was second for Princeton. The electronic scoring system produced some confusion, as Brandeland accidentally wore junior teammate Christy Johnson’s timing chip.

Sophomores Sarah Cummings and Ashley Higginson took the next two spots for Princeton. Behind Kiernan, senior co-captain Jolee VanLeuven was sixth, ahead of every other team’s fifth runner at 36th overall. All told, eight Tigers set personal bests.

The highlight of the men’s race was Maag’s eighth-place finish. The defending Ivy League champion ran an outstanding five-mile time of 23:45, averaging a blazing 4:45 per mile.

“I was happy but not satisfied with my race,” Maag said after breaking the 24-minute barrier for the first time in his career. “I’ve got to be ready to run faster if I want to be ready to defend our title at Heps.”

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Florida State also won the men’s race, while Princeton finished 11th with a score of 296. Maag described the team’s performance as “a bit of a mixed bag,” noting that a number of young runners were competing for the first time at the eight-kilometer distance.

Considering the level of competition, the freshmen ran extremely well: Brian Leung and Max Kaulbach placed 45th and 101st overall to finish third and fourth, respectively, for the Tigers.

Junior Ben Sitler ran a strong race and was second for Princeton at 24:27. Senior Cameron Marantz provided some excitement when he lost his shoe amid the aggressive pushing and shoving early in the race. He recovered to finish in Princeton’s top five after losing several seconds putting his shoe back on.

The women’s team hopes to continue its climb up the polls in two weeks at the Pre-Nationals meet. After failing to score ahead of several nationally ranked teams that would have improved its chance of earning an at-large bid to Nationals, the men’s team also hopes to rebound two weeks from now.

Sitler encouraged the student body to cheer on the team on Nov. 15 at Princeton’s most important home meet of the season, the Mid-Atlantic Regional, whose winner qualifies automatically for the national championship.

“With the regional race at Princeton’s new course at West Windsor for the first time ever, we should certainly have a home-court advantage,” Sitler said. “The more supporters that come out to cheer, the better.”