Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Cross Country Teams Open 2007 Season At Fordham Invitational
September 06, 2007 | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country
The Princeton cross country teams open their 2007 season at the scene of their respective 2006 Ivy League Heptagonal championships, New York City's Van Cortlandt Park, when the Tigers participate in the Fordham Invitational Saturday morning.
22 women's teams race at the famed course in the Bronx beginning at 10:30 a.m., while the Tiger men will join 20 other squads for the men's race that begins at approximately 11 a.m.
The Princeton women head into the 2007 season looking to extend their impressive streak of NCAA championship appearances to five consecutive years. The Tigers' best all-around season in that stretch may have been last season, when Princeton not only won its first Heptagonal title since 1980 but also won the NCAA's Mid-Atlantic regional meet for the second straight season.
The Tigers, who were ranked as high as No. 7 nationally in the USTFCCCA Division I poll a year ago, finished 23rd at the NCAA championship meet in 2006. Princeton also won the 35-team Paul Short Run at Lehigh, and they'll attempt to defend that title Sept. 28.
Head coach Peter Farrell, now in his 30th season as the only head coach in Princeton women's track & field and cross country history, has a powerful sophomore duo returning in Liz Costello and Christy Johnson, the team's top two finishers at last year's conference meet. Junior Jolee VanLeuven was the 10,000-meter champion at outdoor Heptagonals in May, while senior Caitlin McTague finished second in that race and has been a consistent cross country scorer as well.
A trio of Foot Locker prep finalists, Sarah Cummings from California, Liz Deir from New York and Ashley Higginson from New Jersey, should help Princeton offset the graduation losses of 2006-07 team captains Catha and Caroline Mullen and 2007 graduate Mia Swenson, who was the Tigers' top finisher in the regional victory a year ago.
The Princeton men have a powerful duo themselves in senior David Nightingale and junior Michael Maag, but there is plenty of depth throughout the lineup as the Tigers look to defend their Heptagonal title. Princeton's victory at last year's conference meet was its eighth since 1980 but its first since the 1999 season.
Nightingale was an All-America in every season in 2006-07 and was an individual representative for the Tigers at the 2006 NCAA championship cross country meet, where he finished 39th to earn those All-America honors. He was third at the conference meet a year ago at Van Cortlandt Park, and he later reached the NCAA championships in both the indoor (mile) and outdoor (5,000 meters) seasons.
Maag, who finished seventh at last year's Heptagonal meet, has scored for the Tigers in cross country and track & field seven times in his first two years in a Princeton uniform. He is also a two-time NCAA regional qualifier in the 5,000 meters.
A strong freshman class enters this fall, and they will join with veterans like senior Rob Grote and sophomore Ben Sitler, who each finished in the top 20 to lead Princeton to its Heptagonal title a year ago. Senior Frank Tinney and juniors Brett Campfield and Bryan Sharkey have all scored for the Tigers in the past and have also excelled in the distance races on the track.
Princeton's main home meet in 2007 will be the Oct. 13 Princeton Invitational, held on the new Princeton cross country course at the West Windsor Fields. The Tiger women will also run at home Sept. 15 when they will host the annual tri-meet with Harvard and Yale. Both teams will also host the second annual Old Nassau Run Nov. 3.
The Ivy League Heptagonal Championships take place Fri., Oct. 26, at Van Cortlandt Park, while the annual Pre-Nationals Invitational, held at the same course as November's NCAA championship meet, is set for Oct. 13.