Princeton University Athletics
Nightingale Earns All-America Honors, Finishes 39th at NCAA Championships
November 20, 2006 | Men's Cross Country
While the Princeton men's cross country team may have been disappointed it didn't get a team berth into the NCAA championship meet, there's no way the Tigers are disappointed in the performance of their representative in Monday's national championship race.
Junior David Nightingale finished in 39th place overall, earning All-America honors, in running the 10,000 meters at Indiana State's Lavern Gibson Championship Course in a time of 31:43.8.
The race, won individually by BYU's Josh Rohatinsky in 30:44.9 and as a team by Colorado, was run in 50-degree temperatures and muddy conditions after nearly five inches of rain fell on the Terre Haute area a few days ago.
Nightingale was easily the Ivy League's best finisher in the race, outdistancing Heptagonal champion Ben True from Dartmouth by 20 places and over 20 seconds on the clock.
The Princeton junior improved his position in the race by 50 places from a year ago. Nightingale finished in 89th place in the race, on the same Indiana State course, in 2005.
Only four runners finished the 10,000 meters in less than 31 minutes. Rohatinsky was a winner by nearly eight seconds over Stanford's Neftalem Araia. Colorado won the team championship for the second time in the last three seasons.