Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams sent runners to the NCAA Championships this weekend in Terre Haute, Ind. The Princeton women followed a second-place finish at NCAA Regionals with a fifth-place finish in the year-end race. The Tigers’ performance equaled their result from the previous year and tied for the best finish in program history.
Princeton finished the race with 251 points, 60 points above fourth-place Texas Tech. Villanova — the Mid-Atlantic Regional champion — won the race in dominating fashion, finishing with a mere 86 points. Florida State took second with 133 points, and Washington was third with 188.
The race marked an end to what was undoubtedly one of the most impressive seasons in Princeton history. The Tigers dominated the Ivy League, finishing with the minimum 15 points in the Heptagonal Championships, and took second place in the Mid-Atlantic Regional.
Senior co-captain Liz Costello earned a spot on the All-American team for the second consecutive season with an 18th-place finish in the race. Costello completed the race in 20 minutes, 25 seconds.
The race marked the end of Costello’s illustrious cross-country career. Costello — one of the best runners in the program’s history — ---was a four-time first-team All-Ivy League performer, three-time Ivy League champion and two-time first-team All-American.
Sophomore Alex Banfich — racing on her home course — was the second-best finisher on the team. Banfich completed the race in 20:58, good enough for 43rd. Junior Sarah Cummings was just three seconds behind her teammate, taking 49th place with a time of 21:01.
Junior Ashley Higginson and senior co-captain Reilly Kiernan rounded out the scoring for the Tigers. Higginson took 57th with a time of 21:07, and Kiernan completed the course in 21:19 — good enough for 84th. Kiernan is also an associate news editor for The Daily Princetonian.
Though the Tigers graduate two of their top five runners this season, they will still be a force to be reckoned with next year. Princeton returns the second-, third- and fourth-best runners in the Ivy League in Banfich, Cummings and Higginson, respectively.
On the men’s side, junior captain Rob Speare was Princeton’s lone representative. Speare finished 123rd out of 250 runners in his first appearance in the 10-kilometer race.
It was Speare’s first appearance in the NCAA Championships, and his performance was one of the high points for a men’s cross country team that will return its top seven runners next season. With Speare at the helm, the Tigers will likely be a preseason favorite for the Ivy League title and will also be in a position to make some more noise on a national level.
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