Men's and women's XC victorious at HYP meet

Men’s cross country tops Harvard and Yale in season opener

After a 17-year hiatus, the men’s cross country team emerged victorious on Friday in New Haven with a one-point victory over Yale in the season opening meet between Princeton, Yale and Harvard. The Tigers’ top finishers of senior Sam Pons, senior Matt McDonald, junior Michael Sublette, junior Sam Berger and senior Mike Mazzaccaro went 1-3-6-10-11, respectively, for 31 points on the Yale Golf Course. Their performance barely outmatched Yale’s 2-4-5-7-14 finish for 32 points in the meet, while the men from Cambridge ended with 68 points to give Harvard a third-place finish. Pons’ time of 24:20.7 on the 8K course gave him a 5.5-second victory over Yale’s Kevin Dooney, an NCAA National Championship qualifier last year and a representative of Ireland at the 2013 European Championships. Behind Princeton’s Mazzaccaro were teammates sophomore William Paulson, senior Eddie Owens and junior Luke Brahm to give the Tigers the 12th, 13th and 14th spots in the race. Another impressive showing came from the Bulldogs’ Cameron Stanish. The Seattle native finished fifth overall in the first race of his collegiate career, with a time of 24:35.5. Princeton will have time off for the next three weeks to continue training before the team heads to South Bend, Ind., for its first national met at the Notre Dame Invitational on Oct. 3. While the Tigers finished third out of 27 teams at the Notre Dame meet in 2013, the absence of Tyler Udland ’14 and Chris Bendsten ’14 means that the Tigers’ top two finishers in this year’s meet will differ from last year’s. In addition, another group of runners will compete at the Paul Short Invitational that weekend on Oct. 4 in Bethlehem, Pa.

Women’s cross country takes HYP meet in early-season competition

Unlike the men’s race, the women’s cross country team made short work of Yale and Harvard in its opening meet, as the Tigers’ 21 total points outmatched second-place Yale by a 26-point margin. Yale’s Kira Garry won the race with a time of 17:32.4 over the 5K course in New Haven, but the Tigers quickly got the better of their counterparts. Sophomore Megan Curham finished second overall, followed by junior Kathryn Fluehr, senior Erika Fluehr, junior Katie Little and freshman Natalie Rathjen to put the Tigers at 2-3-4-5-7 in their first HYP meet in six years. Sophomore Nicole Marvin and freshman Gabi Forrest placed ninth and 10th, respectively, to give the Tigers seven of the top 10 spots in the meet. The Tigers’ top-five average of 17:47.46 was 10 seconds faster than Yale’s, and 25 seconds faster than Harvard’s. The Tigers will return to action next Saturday, when they travel to the legendary Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx to race at the Meet of Champions. They will then have the following weekend off from competition, and will travel with the men’s team to Indiana for the Notre Dame Invitational on Oct. 3. It was only a year ago at this meet that the Tigers place fifth out of 24 schools, and where Curham’s legendary racing success started to show, as her time of 17:21.2 was the 12th fastest out of a field of a 198-woman field. The remainder of the Tigers’ lineup will compete that weekend at the Paul Short Invitational on Oct. 4.