With four straight Ivy League titles and an impressive national track record, the Princeton men’s cross-country team has shown no signs of slowing down this fall. The team’s leading runners have participated in four meets thus far, taking first place in three of them while building toward a postseason in which they expect to take yet another Ivy League crown and make their mark on the national stage.
“We want to be in the top 10 in the NCAA,” Men’s Cross Country Head Coach Jason Vigilante told The Daily Princetonian. “Then we want to be Ivy League champions, which is not a unique goal. Every team in every sport in our league has that goal, so we’ll need to be well-prepared.”
The Tigers have taken major strides toward those goals, posting impressive finishes against top teams across the country. Their successes have been bolstered by senior Myles Hogan and sophomore Jacob Nenow, who have consistently led the squad. Hogan and Nenow, both named Ivy Athlete of the Week this fall, are key pieces for a Tiger roster with lofty dreams.
“They’ve done very well, and I think it’s a byproduct of not only how hard they’ve worked, but the time that they’ve put in,” Vigilante told the ‘Prince’ when asked about Hogan and Nenow. “They’ve both developed into really outstanding distance runners.”
In the Princeton Fall Classic, a major 31-team race held at the new course at the Meadows complex, Hogan and Nenow finished second and third, proving their ability on the national stage. With over 250 runners packed amongst the fall foliage and raucous fans of the 8-kilometer Meadows course, this was no small feat. Nenow also took first place with a 25:02 finish in Iona’s Paddy Doyle Meet of Champions, held at the famous course in New York City’s Van Cortlandt Park. The Tigers won each of those meets in the team category, thanks in no small part to this dynamic duo.
“It has been really fun to race alongside Myles this year in the races,” Nenow told the ‘Prince.’ “It really makes the race a lot easier to have a teammate along with you and pushing you throughout the race.”
Besides Hogan and Nenow, a number of other Tiger runners impressed in the early going. Senior Jackson Shorten took eleventh overall at the Fall Classic. First-year Hayden Boaz and junior Brian Boler have also consistently placed highly. Though these runners don’t usually make the Tigers’ top two, their scores are arguably more important to the team’s final placement given cross-country’s scoring system. Especially in crowded races, lower final placements among the team’s top five runners can hurt the final score more than higher ones can help it.
“Myles and Jacob could finish first and second, but we’ve got to have the third, fourth, and fifth guys do their role too,” Vigilante explained. “The fifth guy can really do a lot more damage to the team than the first.”
Though winning meets will always be important for a premier team like Princeton, the first half of the season has carried with it an equally important goal: scout out the courses that the Tigers will return to for the postseason. The Tigers have done that twice this year, visiting the site of the Ivy League Heptagonal Cross Country Championships (Heps) at Van Cortlandt and flying to Missouri for the Gans Creek Classic, held at the same venue as this year’s NCAA national championship meet.
Both courses will present the Tigers with unique challenges. Gans Creek runs much like the Meadows course, as both have a large grassy loop that runners repeat over and over en route to the finish line. With hundreds of runners competing on the same course, sticking with your team and pushing past the crowd carries outsized importance.
“We wanted to show up to Gans Creek with the idea that about eight weeks later, we would be back there,” Vigilante told the ‘Prince.’ “I wanted them to understand that what we run for the race that day won’t be as fast as the next time.” The Tigers finished 13th out of 32 teams at Gans Creek.
To reach the national stage again, though, it would behoove the Tigers to perform well at regionals and at Heps at Van Cortlandt. The course is famous for its steep hills and its notorious “back hills” section. In that area, the path goes from a smooth surface to a section of railroad ties meant to keep the course from washing out after rain.
“The terrain is similar to the Towpath, but it’s hilly and there’s a lot of turns,” Vigilante said. “It creates the need to adjust your footing while you’re running amongst the pack, so all of the coaches keep our fingers crossed to make sure everyone can navigate Van Cortlandt safely.”
At Heps, Princeton will be facing off against a competitive Ivy League field that includes a formidable Harvard team that Vigilante sees as the biggest threat to the five-peat. Princeton has yet to face off against Harvard this season, so they will be meeting their conference foes for the first time this year on the biggest stage in the Ivy League.
Beyond Heps lies the threat of the Mid-Atlantic Regionals, held in Bethlehem, PA, where the Tigers have yet to travel. Princeton has historically done well at regionals, but it faces a tougher field than the Ivy League, filled with top squads like Georgetown and Villanova. More than just bragging rights will be at stake in Bethlehem, as the top two finishers at the regional meet get automatic qualification to Nationals.
In the interim, the Tigers intend to train with renewed intensity in the two weeks between the Fall Classic, held on Oct. 17, and Heps, held on Halloween. “Most of our guys are running upwards of 80 to 100 miles per week,” Vigilante said of his team’s preparation. “You’d better love to run.”
Though the team’s results thus far have been impressive, the Tigers are striving to meet their goals on the championship stage. Vigilante and the team see their first-place finishes at the Jersey Jam in Princeton, the Meet of Champions in Iona, and the Fall Classic back home at Old Nassau as nothing more than preparation for the title-winning stretch of the season. With so much at stake, both team and personal goals loom large over these accomplished Tigers.
“Our team goals are to win Heps and to get top ten as a team at Nationals,” Nenow told the ‘Prince,’ echoing his coach. “My personal goals are to do my best with the good training I've had, have fun with the rest of the season, give thanks to God for the gift of being able to run, and do the best I can for the team.”
Joe Uglialoro is an assistant Sports editor for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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