Cross Country: Tigers gear up for crucial invitational at Notre Dame

The men’s and women’s cross-country teams will each send their top nine runners to South Bend, Ind., for the 54th running of the Notre Dame Invitational this Friday. For both squads, this will be the first chance of the season to square off against some of the best teams in the nation.

Fresh off their win at the Cappy Anderson Invitational in Princess Anne, Md., on Sept. 19, the men are looking to perform at their full potential this weekend.

“Two weeks ago was kind of a tuneup,” junior captain Rob Speare said. “[We’ve] yet to see what we can really do.”

The eight-kilometer invitational race will be held on a golf course at Notre Dame. Members of the team who ran last year explained that the course is a grass track with good footing and few hills. The three Tigers who run the mile in track — sophomore Trevor Van Ackeren, junior Dennis Walsh and junior Hudson Andrews — are expected to post solid times for the men’s squad.

“The course should play into their hands well,” Speare said.

Additionally, the Tigers’ performance this weekend may affect whether the team will qualify for the NCAA Championships at the end of the season. To qualify, Princeton must either finish in the top two in the Mid-Atlantic Region or receive an at-large bid.

Since a top-two finish at Regionals is never guaranteed, securing at-large points this weekend would help take pressure off the men’s team’s shoulders and would also allow the Tigers to focus on the Ivy League Championships.

The remaining members on both the men’s and women’s teams are going to the Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh this weekend. At Paul Short, the Tigers will face off against Ivy League rivals Cornell and Penn.

“It would be a nice tribute to our depth to see our ‘B’-squad match up against these teams,” Speare said.

The women’s team also has high hopes for a solid performance this weekend. Last year, Princeton tied Florida State for first place at the Notre Dame Invitational, but this year may prove more difficult, as nine of the top 25 ranked teams in the country will be at the event. Top-ranked Washington and No. 3 Florida State will post strong showings.

Similar to the men’s team, the women have yet to face a real test.

The Tigers hope to show that they have maintained their form from last year, when they finished fifth at nationals, their best performance ever.

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Senior co-captain Liz Costello said that the women are ready to perform.

“We haven’t been able to show it yet, but, the girls who are back are ready to roll,” Costello said.

Costello also says the field should have a strong pack of frontrunners, which will inevitably push the pace. To prepare for this, the women practiced getting off the starting line quickly and settling into their paces at practice on Tuesday.

The women are sending nine runners to Notre Dame, and another two to the Paul Short Invitational.

The women’s performance on Friday may also prove significant later in the season. In past years, the Tigers have secured a bid to Nationals by finishing in the top two at the Regional meet. But this year, the region is especially strong.

Princeton is currently ranked third in the Mid-Atlantic, behind West Virginia and Villanova, with Georgetown threatening as well.

“We need at large points in our back pocket in case [Regionals] doesn’t go as planned,” Costello said.

Both teams are optimistic about their seasons. The first few weeks of training have gone well, and neither squad is troubled by injuries.

The men go into the weekend ranked 30th in the nation, and the women are currently ranked sixth. Heading into the first big test of the season, Speare asserted, “We’re ready.”

The Tigers will find out on Friday if Speare is, in fact, right.