Culver grads running in NCAA championships
The two best runners in Culver Girls Academy's history ran against each other on Oct. 29 at the 2011 Ivy league Heptagonal Championship at Princeton, N.J., and they will see each again on Monday, Nov. 21.
Princeton senior co-captain Alex Banfich '08 and Columbia freshman Waverly Neer '11 will be running in the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships on Monday, Nov. 21. They will be joined by Princeton sophomore Alejandro Arroyo Yamin '10 on the men's side after the Tigers received an at-large bid from the NCAA.
The races will be broadcast live on NCAA.com. The men's race will begin at noon, followed by the women's race at 1 p.m.
The meet is at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course near Terre Haute, Ind. It is the same location where Banfich won three state titles and Neer won one.
Banfich and Neer will be running as individuals since their respective teams did not qualify for the tournament. Banfich qualified by finishing fourth in the 6,000-meter race at the Mid-Atlantic Regional in Maryland. She ran a 21:37.7
Neer finished fifth at the Northeast Regional in Buffalo, N.Y., running at 20:44.6. While she missed the automatic bid (top four individuals and top two teams), she received one of two at-large individual bids on Sunday evening.
Banfich earned All-America honors at last year's national championship race by finishing in the top 20.
At the Ivy League championships, Neer took second and Banfich finished third at the Ivy League championship. Neer clocked in at 22:02.7 and Banfich in 22:04.9.
Columbia finished second in the team standings with 51 team points to 25th-ranked Cornell's 49. Princeton was third. Both Neer and Banfich were named to the All-Ivy first team. It was Neer's first time and Banfich's fourth straight honor. Banfich won the race last year.
In the Ivy League's men's 8-kilometer race, Arroyo finished 15th overall as the Tigers captured the team title. He covered the course in 25:26.8. It was Princeton's fifth title in six years.
Columbia has a special feature on Neer on its athletic website: GoColumbiaLions.com.
