Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Tiger Men Qualify Three For NCAA Cross Country Championship
November 12, 2007 | Men's Cross Country
The Princeton men's cross country team will be well-represented at next Monday's NCAA championship meet as three Tiger standouts have been named as individual qualifiers for the championship.
In addition to senior captain David Nightingale, who automatically qualified as an individual with a fourth-place finish at this past Saturday's Mid-Atlantic regional, junior and Heps champion Michael Maag and sophomore standout Ben Sitler were also named as individual qualifiers for the event. With Maag and Sitler, Princeton earned both at-large individual selections from the Mid-Atlantic region.
The Tigers were one of only two teams nationally that did not qualify as a team for the championship to qualify three runners as individuals for the meet. UCLA from the West region is the other. Princeton just missed out on an automatic selection as a team by finish a close third in the regional at Lehigh Saturday.
Nightingale, who earned qualification as one of the top four finishers in the region not on an automatic-qualifying team, will be running in the championship for the third straight season. He earned All-America honors in 2006 by finishing an impressive 39th overall in the field, 50 places better than his performance during his sophomore season of 2005. The senior captain was injured for much of the 2007 season but has come back strong with top finishes at both the regionals and Heps.
Maag and Sitler proved to be equally as deserving of championship inclusion after strong seasons themselves and individual top 10 finishes at the regional event. Maag, who finished ninth at the regional, won Princeton's first individual Heptagonal championship since 1999 with a victory Oct. 26 at Van Cortlandt Park. Sitler was the Tigers' top finisher in Princeton's early-season action and finished 10th overall at regionals just behind Maag. All five of Princeton's scorers at the regional event placed in the top 27 runners.
Indiana State University will host the 2007 NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Cross Country Championships, November 19, at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course located at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center in Terre Haute, Ind. The men's race will begin at noon Eastern time followed by the women's race at 12:55 p.m. Both championship races will be broadcast live on CSTV.