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LRC 2008 HEPS XC Championship Preview: 2 Reigning* Individual Champions Set To Square Off At 2008 Heptagonal Games As Tight Team Battle Expected Teams: #31 Princeton, Dartmouth, Penn, Cornell, Harvard, Yale, Brown, Columbia Meet info: Men's and Women's Heps XC Championships, October 31, 2008. Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx, NY. Men: 12:30, Women: 1:30.
2007 Heps XC Championship Results Here (Princeton and Michael Maag win)
The men's team cross-country Heps title in 2008 is going to be a multi-horse race. There is no overwhelming favorite, and we believe there are no less than 4 teams that have a 15% likelihood, or better, of winning the coveted championship.
The Princeton Tigers are certainly one of those teams. The two-time defending champs are the favorites in our minds but they aren't the overwhelming favorite like they were last year. They could at least be challenged this year. The Tigers return a powerful one-two punch from last year. They return last year's Heptagonal Games Cross Country Champion, Michael Maag. Maag, an NCAA All-American, is having another great season this year. The Tigers also return the third-placer from last year's Heps in junior Ben Sitler, who also was an NCAA qualifier last year. Or do they? Sitler is rumored on LRC's World Famous Message Boards to be based in England for the semester. The boards are saying he's flying in for the meet and since Sitler ran in the Tigers first two meets, this seems like it's very likely true.
Without Sitler, Princeton is vulnerable, but with him they are the favorites. They just need someone to step it up in the number four and five spots to seal the deal as freshman Brian Leung is running well at #3.
Warning: If you are a Tigers fan, we urge you to stay off the message boards as the program simply can't win any love no matter what it accomplishes. A third straight title might quiet down the detractors - for a week or two. Just as the Yankees are hated by a large part of the country for having so many resources, it seems to be the same with Princeton. We guess Princeton is the NYY of XC. Tiger fans, don't lose any sleep over it, the rest of the league wishes they had to defend themselves after winning two straight XC crowns as it's been a long, long time since any of your rivals except Dartmouth won two crowns period, let alone two in back-to-back years.
Brown (2003) and Yale (1942) have only one title to their credits in school history. The other schools except Dartmouth (2002) have to go back to the 1970s at a minimum to find their 2nd most recent title: Columbia (1979), Cornell (1963), and Penn (1971).
Dartmouth's team will provide a strong challenge for the title this year. Ben True, 2-time Heps cross-country champion, is back in uniform for the Big Green, and is joined by a strong supporting cast including Glenn Randall, Tom Robbins and Kevin Treadway. The Big Green had a dismal showing at the Heps last year, finishing only 7th, but coach Barry Harwick has his boys prepared to go for the podium again this year. Individually, Ben True is going to be right there for the win, probably with Mike Maag and Harvard's Dan Chenoweth in tow. True ran 23:58 at Pre-Nationals, well clear of everyone in the league except studly sophomore Chenoweth in 24:05, with Maag staying home for the Princeton Invite. If True wins in '08, he will join Dick Shea (Army), Dave Merrick (Penn) and Jim Sapienza (Dartmouth) as the only 3-time winners of the Heptagonal cross-country games.
Another legitimate league title contender is the team from Manhattan, the Columbia Lions. The Lions appear to have about 20 guys that would be in the top 10 for most of the teams in the league as their JV team has been putting a scare to other Heps team's varsities throughout the season. The question is, can their front guys score low enough for the Lions to upend the three other contending teams? It's hard to say who from their pack is going to be in their top 5, let alone the top 7, so we'll have to wait and see. We give them about 6:1 odds of taking down the team prize. For those of you writing them off based on their Pre-NCAA results, remember that VCP is their home course.
The last legitimate contender for the title (this IS the Heps so we shouldn't rule any team out, but we are) is Letsrun.com co-founder Rojo's Cornell Big Red. After losing 2 top-10 Heps runners from last year's 2nd place team, Cornell has rebuilt a similarly strong team on the backs of sophomore talent. Cornell has bested Ivy League competition at the Paul Short Invite and Pre-Nats, but is no clear favorite for three reasons: 1. They haven't squared off with Princeton, 2. Dartmouth and Cornell were virtually tied in combined results at Pre-Nationals, 3. Columbia typically runs better on their home course on the last Friday in October. But the Big Red are running well with a solid 1-8 group of guys led by last year's indoor Heps 5k champion and outdoor Heps 10k runner-up Zac Hine and consistent sophomore Adrien Dannemiller.
The news from the rest of the league is this: Harvard took down Yale convincingly at [HY]
Individually, it should be a very interesting race up front as Ben True goes for title #3 after a year away from cross-country. While he was gone, of course, Princeton's Mike Maag brought the individual title back to New Jersey. It will really be a treat to see 2 guys who have won the Heps XC title a combined 3 times go after each other at VCP. We believe Harvard's Dan Chenoweth is the third legitimate contender for the top spot. Behind those 3, Princeton's Ben Sitler and perhaps a host of other individuals may have a small shot of challenging the front group in the final straight. It certainly will be fun to see!
2008 LRC Heps XC Team Predictions
1. Princeton
2. Dartmouth
3. Columbia
4. Cornell
... We don't want to make any enemies.
2008 LRC Heps XC Individual Predictions
1. Ben True (Dart)
2. Michael Maag (Prin)
3. Dan Chenoweth (Harv)
4. Ben Sitler (Prin)
5. Zac Hine (Corn) 6. Glenn Randall (Dart)
7. Chas Gillespie (Harv)
8. Jake Gallagher (Yale)
9. Brian Leung (Prin)
10. Adrien Dannemiller (Corn)
*Disagree with our predictions? Vote in our NCAA Polls (National and Conference Voting) or email us2007 Heps XC Team Results
1. Princeton
2. Cornell
3. Penn
4. Columbia
5. Harvard
6. Brown
7. Dartmouth
8. Yale
Hypothetical results based on returners from 2007 conference meet + selected results from major 2008 meets In listing a score for the returners, we remove last year's seniors and score the hypothetical meet in a normal fashion; i.e., runners who were outside a team's top 7 last year but move into the top 7 when seniors are removed have been counted as scorers or displacers. Returning runners who remain outside their team's top 7 do not figure into either scoring or displacing and count as extras. Obviously, some runners listed as retuners will, in fact, not be running this season. New recruits or transfers will also clearly have an immediate impact, as will runners left off of last year's squads who may have improved dramatically this year. These lists are merely a reflection of what the teams' returning conference runners did at last year's meet and how they would have placed if last year's seniors were removed - nothing more, nothing less. Below each team's returners, the most recent major 2008 results are given (e.g., Pre-Nationals). Men
1. Princeton (46) Michael Maag (1) Ben Sitler (2) Ted Price (10) Dennis Walsh (16) Bryan Sharkey (17) Tim Branigan (24) Elliot Welder (47) PRINCETON INVITATIONAL '08
Results - Men 1 Maag, Michael Princeton 24:07.80 1 2 Kelsey, Greg Maryland 24:13.90 2 3 Lundy, Alex Maryland 24:15.70 3 4 Murray, Kyle St. Joseph's (Pa.) 24:17.90 4 5 Guterl, Brian St. Joseph's (Pa.) 24:23.40 5 6 Leung, Brian Princeton 24:23.70 6 11 Marantz, Cameron Princeton 24:35.60 11 14 Speare, Rob Princeton 24:41.00 14 31 Wilson, Sean Princeton 25:01.10 30 39 Sharkey, Bryan Princeton 25:09.80 38 44 Van Ackeren, Trevor Princeton 25:13.10 42 45 Predmore, Zack Princeton 25:14.90 49 Joy, Jimmy Princeton 25:18.60 2. Columbia (53) James Bogner (5) Paul Morris (9) Jeff Randall (12) Tom Poland (13) Dan Whitt (14) Dustin Martin (34) Mason McElroy (39) PRE NATIONALS '08
20. 555 Columbia (24:59.7 124:58.4) ========================================================== 1 82 293 Brendan Martin 24:46.3 2 88 299 Jeff Randall 24:48.1 3 100 297 Tom Poland 24:54.7 4 131 295 Anthony Merra 25:09.8 5 154 292 Ryan Hays 25:19.5 6 (181) 296 Paul Morris 25:35.8 7 (186) 294 Kyle Merber 25:37.3 3. Cornell (79) Zac Hine (3) Adrien Dannemiller (11) Andy Miller (13) Charlie Hatch (21) Sam Luff (31) Max Kasak (33) Kyle Wolpert (37) PRE NATIONALS '08
16. 428 Cornell (24:46.3 123:51.2) ========================================================== 1 42 316 Zac Hine 24:20.9 2 62 313 Adrien Dannemiller 24:33.7 3 84 314 Nate Edelman 24:47.5 4 95 320 Andy Miller 24:53.1 5 145 317 Max Kasak 25:16.0 6 (153) 319 Sam Luff 25:19.4 7 (178) 315 Charlie Hatch 25:34.5 4. Brown (115) Christian Escareno (4) Stephen Chaloner (19) Brian Schmidt (22) Duriel Hardy (25) John Loeser (45) Sam Sheehan (48) John Haenle (49) NEW ENGLAND XC CHAMPIONSHIPS '08
3. 97 Brown ( 25:10 2:05:50) 5. Yale (125) Jake Gallagher (6) Chris Labosky (18) Jared Bell (29) Murat Kayali (30) John Hinkle (42) Max Brown (44) Max Walden (46) PENN STATE '08
10. Yale
38 Jake Gallagher, Sr 26:08 5:01 47 Jared Bell, Sr 26:14 5:03 57 John Hinkle, Sr 26:25 5:05 62 Jeff Perella, Jr 26:28 5:05 65 Murat Kayali, Sr 26:31 5:06 71 Matt Bogdan, So 26:36 5:07 75 Max Walden, So 26:38 5:07 Time = 2:11:43 Places = 269 6. Penn (135) Brian Trembley (23) Anguel Tolev (26) Luke Grau (27) Brian Cullin (36) Phillip Cawkwell (43) Robbie Dugger (50) Chris Baird (55) PRE NATIONALS '08
29. 749 Penn (25:19.1 126:35.2) ========================================================== 1 110 1156 Luke Grau 24:59.0 2 138 1158 Sean McGinley 25:13.9 3 155 1153 Chris Baird 25:19.5 4 169 1164 Brian Trembley 25:29.5 5 177 1162 Kevin Sullivan 25:33.3 6 (217) 1155 Philip Cawkwell 25:58.9 7 (250) 1154 John Cassidy 26:52.9 7. Dartmouth (140) Glenn Randall (7) Alex Hall (28) Kevin Treadway (32) Oliver Townsend (35) Hari Iyer (38) Chase Eldredge (40) Chris Zablocki (41) PRE NATIONALS '08
13. 431 Dartmouth (24:44.1 123:40.2) ========================================================== 1 15 329 Ben True 23:58.1 2 56 325 Glenn Randall 24:32.1 3 100 328 Kevin Treadway 24:54.8 4 127 330 Chris Zablocki 25:07.0 5 133 327 John Schroeder 25:08.2 6 (206) 326 Tom Robbins 25:46.2 7 (240) 323 Andrew Han 26:09.28. Harvard (184) Dan Chenoweth (8) Chas Gillespie (20) Adam Daoud (51) Vito Cannavo (52) Dan Emont (53) Ryan Neely (54) Robert Kenney (56) PRE NATIONALS '08
28. 724 Harvard (25:15.6 126:17.6) ========================================================== 1 21 515 Daniel Chenoweth 24:05.5 2 64 518 Chas Gillespie 24:35.6 3 202 516 Stephen Couch 25:44.4 4 211 521 Dan Stiles 25:50.1 5 226 520 Ryan Neely 26:02.0 6 (230) 517 Ben Enowitz 26:05.5 7 (266) 514 Vito Cannavo 27:08.3 Pre-Nationals Combined Results
28. Dartmouth 862 42. Columbia 1,109 55. Harvard 1,429 57. Penn 1,505 *LetsRun.com NCAA XC Conference Polls from 10/17/08
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