Whaddaya mean, too early for this thread? It had to start sometime, and the first indoor meet (at least for Cornell) is just two weeks from today!
Others follow the Ivy League more closely than I, and I'd be interested to get your thoughts on the coming t&f season(s). The Columbia women had an inspiring win indoors* last year--it was hard to begrudge them--with excellent coverage of the events, but did not contend outdoors and are coming off a disappointing cross-country season. They recruited very well in a number of events and should again be major players in the Heps, esp. indoors.
The Cornell women, ECAC champs indoors and Heps winners outdoors, also recruited well. Several of their frosh saw major competition during cross; on the other hand, many of the middle-distance group apparently did not race at all in the fall, and it will be interesting to see whether they compete in the team's season-opening relay meet.
The Cornell men brought in major recruits to plug anticipated graduation holes in their hurdles and multi crews--particularly the former--but some frosh take a while to handle the extra three inches in the highs. The Big Red added several real threats in the throws--inconsistency in those events may have cost them the Heps outdoor meet--but the real question for them remains the distance events. Coming off an improved xc season, the Big Red have to hope that the competitiveness they showed there will carry over to the longer track events.
But even with improvement in many/most event areas, can the Cornell men come up with enough points to beat Princeton? Cornell has the larger roster, but the squad size is the same for everybody at Heps; and the Tigers, coming off perhaps their best cross season ever, return tremendous firepower in nearly every event, even without McCullough. (If he's gone for good, that's a real loss to the League--what a pleasure, to watch him throw!) The Tigers may retain their titles without even having to hope for cooperation from the Harvard throwers.
My real interest, as usual, is in change; and you all know more about that. What teams do you see as likely to move up in Heps standings this year? It's not hard to guess Harvard, as usual, based on the talent they bring; but what other teams seem ready to make a move?
*Strangely, the women's indoor results from last year don't seem to be listed in the HTC archives--not sure why.