Although students are just now crawling wearily into lecture halls and seminar rooms, the men’s and women’s cross country teams have already gained momentum for their respective seasons. Stocked with both collegiate veterans and fresh talents, the two teams kicked off their seasons at last Saturday’s Spiked Shoe Invitational in University Park, Pa., where the men took first and the women came in second. Despite an intense schedule, both coaches and athletes are feeling optimistic, with strong starts to their seasons.
The women are looking to continue a tradition of excellence this year. The Tigers were ranked the No. 9 team in the nation this week by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, following consecutive fifth-place titles at the NCAA Championships in 2008 and 2009 (the best finishes the team has ever achieved). Within the Ivy League, the Tigers reign supreme, having clinched the conference title for the past four years.
“Last year was a banner year for Princeton cross country,” senior co-captain Sarah Cummings said. “We completed a first-through-fifth sweep at the Ivy League Championships for a perfect score of 15.”
Cummings remained optimistic for her team’s upcoming season, even though it lost several key runners to graduation.
“[Sophomores] Mel Newbery, Alexis Mikaelian and Abby Levene have shown in preseason practices and at our first meet at Penn State that they are ready to step up to the plate and fill in the gaps,” Cummings said.
Newbery and Levene are also staff writers for The Daily Princetonian.
Cummings added that freshmen Theresa Devine, Marisa Cummings, Clare Gallagher and Katie Skinner will prove crucial to a successful season.
With the season opener left in the dust, the Princeton women are focusing on the Notre Dame Invitational this October in South Bend, Ind. The Tigers will have another chance to taste competition in New Haven, Conn., next Friday at the Harvard-Yale-Princeton Meet before moving on to this important race.
Members of the men’s cross country team shared Cummings’s optimism for their own squad. Men’s head coach Steve Dolan said that each season he coaches is exciting, but this fall has especially piqued his interests.
“One of the fun things this season is we have a lot of young runners,” Dolan said. “It’s an exciting opportunity for our developing runners to improve.”
Dolan highlighted local freshmen talents Jonathan Vitez and Tyler Udland as promising newcomers. The former won the New Jersey high school state championship in the 3,200m for indoor track, while the latter progressed to the Footlocker National Championships during high school.
Dolan also explained that the cross country season is unlike that of most other sports: The competition list is shorter, making every race vital to the team’s success.
“The runners train a lot but don’t race that much during the cross country season, so each race is big,” he said. “We usually prioritize the end of the season.”
However, Dolan also noted that some of the year’s great competitions will actually be in the middle of the season. The Wisconsin Adidas Invitational in Madison, Wis., and the Paul Short Invitational in Bethlehem, Pa., will both take place in the next two weeks, and both meets will showcase some of the nation’s best teams.
“We have a great schedule,” Dolan noted. “Every time we race from here on out will be important.”
Dolan is looking to junior captain Donn Cabral and junior Brian Leung to be team leaders this year. Cabral won the Spiked Shoe Invitational last weekend, while Leung has maintained an illustrious record since becoming an NCAA qualifier freshman year. Senior Mark Amirault — who won the 5,000m at the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships in the 2009 outdoor track season — and junior Joe Stilin are also expected to spearhead Princeton’s team.
Cabral shared his coach’s enthusiasm.
“In the past we’ve had some very good recruiting classes,” Cabral said in an e-mail. “But one thing that makes our freshmen so exciting is that they’ve stepped up and are putting pressure on some of our older guys who may have better credentials and more experience at the longer collegiate distances.”
Though cross country is often thought of as an individual sport, Cabral maintained that teamwork is extremely important.
“As a captain, my most important job is to help my teammates maintain the fire to work hard and race well throughout the season,” Cabral said. “An important part of that is to make sure that we function as a unit and run well not just for ourselves, but to get the lowest score for our team as possible.”
Both Dolan and Cabral are looking forward to the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships at Penn State in November. Several strong programs will all be battling for two automatic bids at the national championships, providing runners old and new with exciting opportunities.
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