Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Ivy League Heptagonal Championships
Players Mentioned
A Tiger Sweep at Heptagonals; It's A Princeton Day in New York
October 27, 2006 | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country
For only the seventh time in Heptagonal cross country history, a school swept both the men's and women's races. On a sunny Friday morning at Van Cortlandt Park in New York City, that team was the Princeton Tigers.
A clutch performance by senior captain Paul Rosa helped the Princeton men pull out a tight finish with host Columbia, while the favored women cemented their amazing fall season with another terrific performance, as the Tigers left New York with their first sweep of the annual event since 1980.
The women, ranked No. 22 nationally headed into the race, carried the burden of expectation exceedingly well. Two dynamic freshmen, Christy Johnson and Liz Costello, were the top two finishers for the Tigers, while seniors Catha and Caroline Mullen also had strong races and sophomore Jolee Van Leuven placed in the top 10. When it was over, Princeton's depth gave it five of the top 13 runners and a team score of 42, well ahead of Columbia's 64 points.
The win was the first for the Princeton women at cross country Heptagonals since that sweep season of 1980, as the heartache of eight second-place finishes since that year, including each of the last three seasons, finally ended for head coach Peter Farrell and the Tigers.
"Well, you can say the monkey is off the back," said Farrell, the only coach in the history of the women's program. "It was a little scary out there with the pace, and the race went completely opposite of what I projected. But that's Heps, and our depth won it for us in the end."
"When someone isn't having a great day, someone else steps up," Farrell said. "That's what we've done all fall, and that's what makes a good team."
Princeton's win broke Columbia's four-year string of meet victories. The Tigers had seven of the top 18 runners overall.
The men's race began the day, and the battle proved to be between the Tigers and surprising Columbia, running an inspired race on its home course.
David Nightingale's third-place finish and Michael Maag's seventh-place run were certainly expected, but the Tigers also got a boost from Rosa, who ran the race of his season to finish fifth overall in 24:48.4. The race was still tight based on the first three finishers from both Princeton and Columbia, but junior Rob Grote and freshman Ben Sitler, injured much of the season, responded by crossing the line nearly together in 17th and 18th place to give the Tigers their first team title since 1999.
Princeton's finishing score was 50, with Columbia's second-place score 63 and Dartmouth in third with 97.
"Paul's leadership is infectious," said Princeton distance coach Steve Dolan. "It was great to see a senior and a captain have such a big day at his last Heps and help lead us to a win."
"We've been building on this for a few years and it's nice to see it happen for us," Dolan said about the Tigers, who also finished second a year ago. "The kids really began to believe in themselves."
Seven Princeton runners finished in the top 25 of the race, and only Rosa is a senior out of that group.
Dartmouth's Ben True was the individual winner on the men's side for the second straight year, running the 8K loop in 24:29.1 to edge Cornell's Jimmy Wyner and Princeton's Nightingale. Yale's Lindsay Donaldson won the women's race in an impressive time of 17:05.4, just a few seconds off the meet record and nine second ahead of the second-place finisher.
In addition to this year's sweep, the Tigers earned Heptagonal sweeps in both 1980 and 1978. Columbia won both races in both 1993 and 2004, while Dartmouth was the men's and women's winner in both 1994 and 1995.
The Ivy League titles by the men's and women's cross country teams are the second and third of the fall season already for the Tigers, who also clinched the field hockey championship last weekend.
Complete results from Friday morning's event are available at IvyLeagueSports.com.