Closing A Career In Style

Joe Stilin was understandably exultant — he'd found the golden way to reach the finish line.

The Princeton University senior, whose undergraduate career has been consistently shortchanged by ongoing medical issues, at last got it all together and ran off with a major title in the last collegiate cross country race of his life Saturday at Van Cortlandt Park.

Not only did he win the individual gold medal in the 103rd edition of the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes Championships — the nation's most history-laden college XC event — but he led his Princeton Tigers to the team title in the process.

"I was anemic (earlier) this season," said Stilin, a mechanical and aerospace engineering major from Milwaukee. "Then I started taking iron supplements about three weeks ago and it cleared it right up. It was a huge turnaround and here I am.

"With about 600 meters left, I just kicked it home. I wasn't going to leave anything behind. I've always felt confident in my kick. My track speed (4:09 miling) has always been good. Today, finally, it all came together."

While Mid-Atlantic Regional individual champion and steeplechase star Donn Cabral and other Princetonians were in Terre Haute, Ind., readying for Monday’s NCAA Division I Championships, Stilin and another streak of Tigers were starring a lot closer to home. Stilin paced a 154-man individual field over the classic Van Cortlandt five-mile course in 24:47, fastest time of his life, and powered Princeton to a decisive win over a 17-team pack.

Placing five men in the top 16 — back of Stilin, Michael Franklin ran seventh, Jonathan Vitez 11th, Michael Williams 15th and Thomas Dialynas 16th — Princeton netted just 50 team points and cruised home easily over runner-up Albany (121), third-place La Salle (145), fourth-place Syracuse (168) and all the rest.

"This is very meaningful for all of us," said Princeton coach Kyle Soloff. "Absolutely, there's tons of tradition in the IC4A and ECAC meets and, unfortunately, sometime that's forgotten. But not for us. Joe Stilin, he's an amazing runner. He struggled throughout the season. It was frustrating for him. But today he turned it all around. It's so great that he was able to go out like this. We knew he had it in him all along."

The co-featured women’s Eastern College Athletic Conference 5,000-meter test was far closer — with first-time team winner Iona College's 56-point score taking it over runner-up La Salle's 83, third-place Syracuse's 95, fourth-place James Madison's 108 and seven others. But defending team titlist James Madison provided the individual winner in junior Katie Harman (17:29).

"I was fifth here last year, so this was a nice improvement," said Harman. "I kicked it in from about 1000 meters and that's what did it," said the occupational therapy major from Clarksville, Md., who has 2:13 800 and 4:48 mile credentials on the track. "I hope this leads into a great track season and then a really, really good senior year."

La Salle men — Nick Crits (24:51) and Alfredo Santana (24:55) — ran 2-3 back of Stilin while La Salle women — Meghan McGlinchey (17:38) and Caitlin Storbeck (17:42) — were 2-3 behind Harman. But neither Explorer team had the depth to win it all.

It was Princeton's first IC4A team title of the century — the Tigers hadn't won it since the last of a three-year streak in 1997-98-99 — and Stilin was the first Princeton individual champion since Tony Barrocco in '97.

Just like the Iona men, who feature NCAA gold medalist Leonard Korir of Kenya, the Iona women are an international group.

The ECAC championship Iona squad was led by Lauren Calvino, a freshman from Merrimack, N.H., sixth in 17:56; Heidi Gregson of Sydney, Australia, eighth in 18:00; Marion Joly-Testault of Gex, France, 13th in 18:10; Regina Neumeyer of Immenstaad, Germany, 14th in 18:12, and Katie Niblock of East Amherst, N.Y., 15th in 18:13.

"It was a great race for our women," said coach Brian Chenoweth, whose Iona team also includes athletes from England, Ireland and Canada. "They got out well, ran really strong, and continued moving up. It continues a big year for us."

"Now, we're looking to make the Iona women's program as strong as the men's. So this was a big step for us."

"I think we had 40 schools competing today and that's about the same size we've had in most recent years; we appreciate everyone's support," said Steve Bartold, the former St. John’s University star and Yale coach who now serves as IC4A track administrator. "Of course, we had a lot of (other) teams competing in the NCAAs, and Duke (three-time defending IC4A champion) wasn't here this year. But the IC4A still means a lot and there's so much tradition involved."

The program also included IC4A and ECAC University Division races, as well as IC4A/ECAC coaches races for second-echelon runners.

Metropolitan IC champion Julian Saad of Fordham added to his dossier of big wins by taking the IC4A University Division gold medal in 25:28 over the Sacred Heart duo of Jeffrey Lusignan (25:39) and Christopher Connell (25:45) while a fifth-place by Collin Frost (26:07) led Binghamton (with its top five in the first 11) to the team crown, 35-60-109 over Fordham and Sacred Heart.

"About mile-and-a-half, two miles in, I was already running by myself, so I never really had to surge,” said Saad, a junior from Trumbull, Conn. "Today's good, but tomorrow's (indoors and outdoors) what we're really looking forward to.  I want to run 8 flat (3000 meters) and 14 flat (5000 meters) before this year's up."

With sophomore Kathryn Fanning taking the individual gold in 18:06, the Albany women were off and running to the ECAC University Division team crown, with a 109-119-159 verdict over Marist and Towson. "Coming in, I really didn't think I had enough to win this," said Fanning. "But, then again, you never know. I surprised a lot of people, I guess, including me."

Marist's Michelle Gaye (18:15), Sacred Heart's Brittney Lane (18:22) and Monmouth's Jennifer Nelson (18:26) in 2-3-4 led the pursuit of Fanning.

Before all this, La Salle displayed its great depth with a 1-2-3-4 -5 slam, by Ian Barnhill (27:03), James Murphy, Zach Sullivan, Drew Morrissey and Ryan Topita in the men's coaches race, and a win by Courtney Cramer (19:33.5) in the women's coaches event, neither race with team scoring.

Even though La Salle failed to win a team title, snaring a second in the ECAC women's and third in IC4A men's championship races, all the Explorers — now piloted by Dan Ireland, who formerly coached at Yale — made a poignant point. They all wore 'Torp' emblems on their racing vests and dedicated their whole season to Coach Charley Torpey, who died of a heart attack in early summer.

"Coach Torpey was definitely one of a kind; we miss him greatly," said La Salle runner.Michael Bowden. "What a huge loss it was for all of us."

Another IC4A/ECAC theme: growing resentment over recent track/cross country team cutbacks (often cited as Title IX issues) at such schools as Delaware, St. John's, Towson, James Madison and West Virginia (which retain women's teams after cutting their men's squads) and Seton Hall (which retains men's and women's cross country but no longer supports indoor and outdoor track).

Latest to be cut: University of Maryland's men's cross country and track squads, even with the Terps' program headed by 2012 USA mens Olympic coach Andrew Valmon. On display at Van Cortlandt were posters by Delaware runners reading 'Support UMd Track & Cross Country." Their own school's men's varsity team was reduced to a club team a year ago and veteran Delaware coach Jim Fischer faces termination early next year.

"Track and cross country athletes are invariably great students at all schools," said Fischer. "They are true student-athletes. I wish we could say that for all the other sports."

Another Fischer point: "It's often said that football revenues support the other sports. But football, at Delaware and some other places, often loses a few million dollars. In truth, we"re supporting them."