Snow lined the Zimmer Championship Course in the lead up to the big dance — reminiscent of the iconic 2018 finale — as the NCAA Cross Country Championships made its first return to Madison, Wisconsin since that wintry day six years ago. This time, the snow was not the fixture of the race, with cleanups prior to the Saturday morning race clearing the grass for trampling by the nation’s 31 best men’s and women’s cross country teams.
Ultimately, Princeton placed 24th in the event, off-synch compared to their No. 18 national ranking, last year’s historic 11th place finish, and the Tigers’ own expectations.
Up front, Harvard’s Graham Blanks — who last year became the only Ivy man to ever win an individual title —stopped the clock in a course record 28:37.2 to defend his throne. Closely trailing Blanks, New Mexico’s Habtom Samuel pounded his chest and pointed at his bare, bloodied foot as he crossed the line in second, having run the final 5000 meters down a shoe.
On the team side, No. 1 BYU jumped out to a huge lead early and faded to the finish line, but the Cougars held on to complete their sweep of the men’s and women’s team titles. No. 4 Iowa State, No. 3 Arkansas, and the home-crowd-bolstered No. 7 Badgers completed the four-team podium— an unconventional fixture of the NCAA Championships.
With just 10000 meters for the rest of their college careers, senior captains Nick Bendtsen and Dan O’Brien led the seven-deep Princeton squad into battle. Senior Harrison Witt, juniors Myles Hogan, Connor McCormick, and Jackson Shorten, and sophomore Weston Brown filled out the Tigers’ ranks for the season’s culmination.
When the gun sounded, Witt represented the first Princeton jersey to spring towards the front of the stampede.
“I knew that the race was going to be quick off the line, so I got out hard to avoid getting stuck in the back,” Witt told The Daily Princetonian. “However, I was a bit too excited and found myself pretty high up.”
The Tigers looked to find each other in the chaos, hoping to continue to run the way they have all season, together.
“One of our big goals was to work together as much as possible, so I tried to find my teammates in the pack and work towards them,” O’Brien said of his early racing.
The higher stakes brought higher interest, and the crowd was electric. Upwards of 5,000 tickets were sold, and with thousands more sneaking in, fans piled many rows deep along the sidelines to watch the country’s best.
“They estimated 10,000 people were there, each one of them screaming in your face from inches away,” Witt told the ‘Prince.’ “Truly it was the best race environment I’ve ever encountered. All of our families were able to come as well, which made it even more special.”
Propelled in part by the crowd and in part by their unbroken commitment to their teammates, the Tigers fought as hard as they could in the second half. “[Going out fast] made the rest of my race very challenging, both physically and mentally,” Witt said to the ‘Prince.’
“The second half of the race was definitely tough. We put our heads down and dug to get as many spots as possible,” O’Brien added.
One of the day’s greatest displays of teamwork was captured frequently on the TV broadcast. For a few of the last kilometers, two orange singlets, perfectly side-by-side, moved over the course’s hills and valleys in tandem. Hogan and Bendtsen had found each other in the pack and helped each other through the race’s toughest stages.
Hogan broke from his teammate late and was characteristically the first Tiger across, running 29:38 for 64th place. Bendtsen followed just six seconds later in 77th, and O’Brien capped his Princeton career in 166th place, both captains now three-time NCAAs finishers.
The always hard-charging Shorten finished 195th but posted the 63rd best closing split, passing 12 other runners down the stretch. Running on the biggest stage in his debut cross country season, Brown came home in 202nd, marking his first time back in the Tigers’ top five since the Princeton Fall Classic.
Right behind Brown, Witt and McCormick crossed the line together, placing 204th and 206th respectively in their Nationals debuts.
All together, Princeton scored 587 points to take 24th out of the 31 attendees, and while the Tigers know they can be better, they trust that this will inform their success in years to come. “We set an ambitious goal of placing in the top 10 as a team, and were unable to accomplish that,” Witt explained. “However, we gained a lot of experience and learned how to come back stronger and race smarter next year.”
Next year, Witt, along with Bendtsen and O’Brien, will depart the team, but the senior class leaves behind a winning culture and an incredible four-year resume.
“It has been an honor to be a part of this team and I’m really happy to have had the opportunity to race NCAA’s one last time with these guys,” O’Brien said of his time in Orange and Black. Witt echoed the importance of camaraderie and the feeling of honor, telling the ‘Prince’ that “Racing cross-country in the Princeton uniform has been the greatest honor of my life…My teammates have always been right by my side throughout the hardest challenges and toughest moments.”
The Tigers’ 2024 fall campaign was one for the ages, becoming the first team to win four consecutive Ivy League titles in 25 years.
“I couldn’t be more proud of this group. After graduating a lot of senior veterans last year, these guys have really stepped up, winning a fourth straight Heps title and making it back to the NCAA Championship,” O’Brien concluded.
The distance squad now turns to the oval, where they will contribute to the indoor track and field team’s quest to secure their tenth Heps title in a row.
Luke Stockless is a contributing Sports writer for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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