This Saturday, Princeton students will have a great opportunity to cheer on their own as the men’s and women’s cross country teams host the third annual Princeton Invitational. On top of participating in the Princeton Invitational, the women’s team will send its top seven runners to the Pre-Nationals meet at Terre Haute, Ind., the site of the national championship meet later this season.
The Princeton Invitational will be held on Princeton’s cross country course at West Windsor. The men will run the eight-kilometer course at 10 a.m., and that race will be followed by the women’s six-kilometer race at 10:45 a.m.
In normal conditions, the course runs flat and fast, but rain is in the forecast for later this week. If it rains, the water would soften the course and slow down the runners.
In prior years, the meet has only attracted area teams. This year, however, runners are coming from larger schools nationwide, including Boston College and the University of Texas.
“In the past, it hasn’t been quite as competitive, but this year, it’s something special,” junior captain Rob Speare said.
Though last year’s invitational did not field some of the nation’s top teams, it was not without drama.
Speare explained that last year’s Princeton Invitational was a wake up call. The Tigers struggled on their home course, and the meet was followed by stern lecture from head coach Steve Dolan.
This is a new year, however, and Speare is optimistic.
“We should be able to win this meet,” Speare said. “It’s a huge mental step for the team ... Everybody’s going all out on Saturday.”
Texas and regional rival St. Joseph’s will be the Tigers’ main competition, but Princeton also hopes to beat Ivy League rivals Columbia and Penn. A total of 14 teams are entered on the men’s side of the race, amounting to more than 200 runners.
For some runners, this may be their last race of the season, and it is certainly an important one. The race determines which 12 runners will be entered at the Heptagonal Championships, which will take place on Friday, Oct. 30 in Van Cortlandt Park in New York.
The women will have a chance to prepare themselves for further challenges this season on the national championship course in Terre Haute. The Tigers, who are currently ranked fifth in the nation, will also be able to see how they match up against other top-ranked teams in the country.
Pre-Nationals will be a large meet. Ninety teams will be arriving from all over the country, and the meet will be split into three races.
“The teams are split in a systematic way based on rank,” senior co-captain Liz Costello said.
Head coach Peter Farrell said that the focus is on team performance and running as a group. After the fast race at Notre Dame two weeks ago, Farrell said the team was working on pack running, or working together while on the course.
This meet is an important preview of how Nationals will test the Tigers.
“It will be crowded and fast, just like Nationals,” Costello said. “So it’s a great prep meet.”
The meet will show all the top teams where they stand in comparison to one another. This is especially important for a Princeton team that is expecting big things as the season progresses.
“This is the best team we’ve ever had,” said Farrell, who is the only head coach of the women’s track and field team since it received varsity status in 1978.
Farrell is hopeful that the women will have a strong showing this weekend and capture more at-large points to help them secure a bid to Nationals in November.
The women who are not going to Indiana will be racing at the Princeton Invitational this weekend. They will face off against 11 other schools, including Ancient Eight rivals Columbia and Penn.
The six-kilometer course is the first course of that distance the team has seen this season. This will prove especially difficult for the team’s freshman runners, many of whom have never run this distance before.
“Our primary goal is to run a strong 6K from start to finish,” junior Brooke Russell said.
As is the case with the men’s team, the Princeton Invitational is the last chance for the women to make the squad for the Heptagonal Championships in two weeks.
Since the invitational’s creation, Princeton has never been able to field a full women’s team at the Princeton Invitational because it always falls on the same weekend as Pre-Nationals. This year, the team hopes to finally win on its home course because it will have a full team.
For both the men and women’s teams, racing at home will certainly be a nice change.
“It’s nice to wake up in your own bed on the day of the race,” Speare said.
In addition, it also gives Princeton students and faculty a rare chance to see the Tigers compete on the cross country course at West Windsor.
“We’d love to see students come out and cheer us on [because] it’s kind of a lonely sport,” senior Elliot Welder said.
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