Princeton University
NCAA Championships
Ferrell an All-America Again, Tigers Finish 11th at NCAA Women's Cross Country Championships
November 21, 2005 | Women's Cross Country
Nov. 21, 2005
Complete Results
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Senior Cack Ferrell earned All-America honors by finishing 10th overall and the Tigers outdistanced Ivy rival Columbia by seven points in the overall standings on the way to an 11th-place finish at the NCAA Division I Women's Cross Country Championships at the Lavern Gibson Championship Course Monday afternoon.
Ferrell, who had also finished in the top 10 in the "White" race at the Pre-Nationals held on the same course last month, was in the lead pack with several other runners at the race's halfway point, running the first 3,000 meters in 9:58. Northern Arizona's Johanna Nilsson, also in that lead pack, would pull away at the end, winning the race by 13 seconds over Columbia's Caroline Bierbaum, but Ferrell's 10th-place finish was just 30 seconds behind the winner.
Princeton's total of 385 was good for 11th place, just eight points behind 10th-place Oklahoma State. Columbia finished in 13th position with 392, while Stanford won the tightly-contested race, finishing with 146 to outdistance second-place Colorado.
Junior Catha Mullen was Princeton's second finisher, placing 62nd in 20:48.9 over the 6,000-meter course. Mia Swenson finished 122nd in 21:18.9, while Jolee van Leuven was 141st in 21:27.9. Princeton's final scorer was senior Suzanne Andrews, who was 170th in the 253-runner field in a time of 21:47.9 Caroline Mullen and Katie Gose also ran for the Tigers, finishing in 21:53.5 and 22:07.2 respectively.
Stanford placed four runners in the race's top 50 to earn the title, while second-place Colorado was the only school to place two runners in the top 10 overall.
Ferrell's 10th-place finish was 10 places better than her finish from a year ago and gave the Minnesota native a third straight All-America honor for finishing among the top 30 Americans in the race. The Tigers improved seven places as a team in 2005, finishing 11th after placing 18th on the same course a year ago.