Bulldogs hope to translate success into another run at HYPs

Ranked sixth in the nation at the season's outset, women's crosscountry is in the midst of its best season in recent years. Despite a fourth-place finish at the College Meet of Champions on Sat., Sept. 29, the team looks forward to solid performances by both old and new runners.

"It was our first meet of the season, but it wasn't for the other schools at the meet. I was satisfied with our effort, but not with the results," Head Coach Mark Young, ES '68, said. "It wasn't necessarily bad, like a little cold water for the team."

COURTESY SPORTS PUBLICITY The O'Neill twins hope to lead Yale to another victory at H-Y-P.

The team finished just one point behind Boston College and Cornell, but they defeated talented teams such as Villanova, Michigan, and Ivy rivals Brown and Dartmouth. "We expected to place second, not fourth," Kate O'Neill, TD '03, said. "But the workout on Monday went very well and has motivated us for our upcoming matches." Despite the disappointing finish, Kate and sister Laura O'Neill, TC '03, finished third and fourth, respectively, out of 238 runners. Rounding out the top four were Amanda Brewster, BR '02, who finished 20th, and Lindsay Mitchell, CC '03, who took 30th place. In preparation for the more serious meets later in the season, the team will lift fewer weights and run less mileage, leaving them fresher for the actual meet.

The team's long-term goals include qualifying for nationals by placing as one of the top two teams at the pre-national meet, bettering their seventh-place finish at the NCAA Championships and defending the Ivy League Championship.

The meet tomorrow against Princeton and Harvard has been an old tradition for the team, and they remain confident. The course is relatively flat and the team looks to post good times. At the Meet of Champions, the Elis placed four runners ahead of Harvard's best competitor, who finished with a time of 0:22:13.6. "If everyone runs normally, we should win," Captain Millie Grinstead, TC '02, said. "Neither team poses a real threat anymore—even though that was not true in my earlier years—but we are not overconfident."

—Joseph Boonsiri

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