HEPS XC 2013 OFFICIAL THREAD

Good sleuthing, C/M Runner. Thanks.

Last year, Cornell was saying that their women's cross-country squad was the biggest in D1. That updated roster you mentioned lists 45 women returning. Add in recruited frosh, transfers, and walkons, and you might figure about 60!

But I think some SID person must have just changed the years on last year's roster and "graduated" last year's seniors. Several names on that list (just that I know of) are no longer in the program. So I'd say that was an SID list and not a coach's list at all.

The same is likely true of most other 2013 XC rosters that get posted in the summer (Dartmouth the exception, maybe). We won't get a good idea of who's really running until Sept.

My point about Schlachtenhaufen was not that she is likely to get cut. It was more that Coogan must see something that is not evident to followers of the sport in order to include her on the roster. It is pretty well shy of his recruiting parameters (~4:55 mile, ~10:50 2 mile, state champion). I wager she got in on her academic merit alone and, now that she's there, Coogan sees some indication of solid potential It's better than Abbey D did in high school.

Who are favorites to take the individual crown? I'd assume Abby for the women...

Which team will have the biggest jump? Which team will have the biggest fall? Which school has the top overall recruit?

Discuss.

^ no one knows, all the recruits are not listed yet (Cornell)

If they're healthy, it would be difficult NOT to go with AD'A and Neer on the women's side. Men's side: much more up in the air, with a fair amount of turnover individually, but watch out for that kid from Penn. Teamwise, hard to bet against Princeton again.

On a totally other note, I went to that Dyestat listing of incoming Ivy frosh (yes, I understand that it's unofficial, incomplete, yada)--

http://parser.dyestat.com/collegepicks.jsp?seasonyear=2013&sort=conference&conference=Ivy+Group

--and was actually a little taken aback when I looked at their individual stats for the Cornell men. A 16ft vaulter--who's a foot below another incoming PVer? A ~180ft HS hammer thrower--who's 75ft below another?

And then I looked at the listing of the incoming men for Harvard--wow!

As a big fan of the technique events--hurdles and field, that is--I'm really pleased to see that guys outside the middle- and long-distance events are heading toward Ivies. About time!

Well, the sprinting and hurdling all-time records have been rewritten a bit these past few years. I just hope we can finally be consistently more competitive in those fields in the future. I feel we will be in the women's 400H with Franklin now running 57s and Harvard getting a frosh who has done 57 in the event. Do we think that Cornell's Bruno can make an impact soon on the national scene in the 100 or 200m? He ran a 20.5x recently to qualify for the world championships for spain.

As far as Cornell's female recruits are concerned, the only word I've gotten is a 12.03/24.72 sprinter and a 2:15 800 runner.

...which is to say, no xc women.

Okay, I scored last year's women's Heps race, pulling out all of last year's seniors. I hope I did the math right--it took a lot longer than I thought.

Cornell 38

Harvard 63

Yale 110

Dartmouth 115

Brown 129

Columbia 138

Princeton 144

Penn 169

Obviously this assumes that all of last year's nonseniors return, are healthy, etc. If you only add Abbey D. to last year's nonseniors (and she wins), Dartmouth's score drops to 84 and everybody else's rises by five; if you only add Neer to last year's nonseniors (and she wins), Columbia's score drops to 102 and every other team's rises by five.

Et cetera--there were a lot of MIAs last year, sick or hurt!

Okay, I screwed that up a little. Dartmouth's score would drop to 88 with the addition of a healthy, winning Abbey; Columbia's would drop to 106 with a healthy, winning Neer. Oops.

Anyway, the real point is that, without an ungodly recruiting class (and, yes, assuming everyone is back, healthy, yada), none of the other women's teams projects as a real threat to Cornell's threepeating. The Big Red *did* graduate some very important folks, but return three who've been first-team all-Ivy, joined by some rising sophs who had a fine track season.

Given that Harvard tends to *get* an "ungodly recruiting class" most years, and is the closest (projected) team to Cornell anyway, they seem to be the most legitimate threat.

Same thing (seniorless 2012 results) for the men:

Princeton 19

Columbia 74

Dartmouth 81

Harvard 94

Yale and Cornell 137

Penn 175

Brown 218

Graduation hit Columbia and Cornell especially hard; the Lions' projected place isn't affected, but the Big Red's certainly is.

I realize "frosh don't help on the men's side" is the standard wisdom, but it doesn't appear to be completely true. True, there wasn't a freshman in the first two dozen places last year, but then half of the next fourteen spots were first-years. Considering the Crimson's vaunted recruiting--and the possibility of better races from Leakos and especially Korolev--I'd say that Harvard has a genuine shot at cracking the top three this fall.

Last year's results for men:

http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/championships/xc/2012-13/results-men.html

And for women:

http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/championships/xc/2012-13/results-women.html

Columbia men recruits announced:

http://www.gocolumbialions.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=9600&ATCLID=208741360

No word on the women recruits.

On the men's side, I don't think that anyone poses any legitimate threat to Princeton. Not only do they have the best team on paper, both in terms of XC and track performances, but they perform astronomically better come championship season than any other Ivy. They really do step their game up to the next level.

That being said, I think the race is for second, and it will come down to Columbia, Dartmouth, and Harvard. I have to give the edge to Dartmouth. Using Hepsfan's scoring without seniors, Dartmouth already appears to have the edge as their 1 or 2 guy from last year, John Bleday, was hurt during Heps but is back this year with 4:02/7:59 under his belt from indoors. Just with Bleday, Dartmouth would have about 60-65 points to Columbia's 74 with the adjusted scoring. Will Geoghegan also improved during outdoor, running 13:55 and 3:44, so he will be a threat to win Heps. Throw in the depth with Mangan (3:45), Sterling (8:56 steeple), O'Sullivan (25th at regionals), and King (30th at Heps as a freshman) and I think Dartmouth has enough to get 2nd, even if Korolev and Leakos finally perform at their potential.

[quote]C/M Runner wrote:

Columbia men recruits announced:

http://www.gocolumbialions.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=9600&ATCLID=208741360

Wow! I know freshmen don't usually make a huge impact on the men's side at Heps, but that recruiting class from Columbia has got to be one of the best the Ivy League has seen in recent years. They may be the favorite to finish second after all, and if they can develop that talent, they may have a shot at winning, even with Princeton's stellar senior class.

kibitzer wrote:

As far as Cornell's female recruits are concerned, the only word I've gotten is a 12.03/24.72 sprinter and a 2:15 800 runner.

...which is to say, no xc women.

Wrong.

They always announce in mid July. Hold your horses.

Jekfhsaoehgfb wrote:

kibitzer wrote:

As far as Cornell's female recruits are concerned, the only word I've gotten is a 12.03/24.72 sprinter and a 2:15 800 runner.

...which is to say, no xc women.

Wrong.

They always announce in mid July. Hold your horses.

I guess I wasn't clear enough: the only word I've gotten is about a sprinter and an 800 runner...which is to say, I haven't gotten word of any *particular* xc women yet.

I had already heard (from a variety of sources) that Cornell *was* bringing in a healthy women's xc crew, but I hadn't been informed of specifics--which, in the context of our discussing other teams' disclosure of their recruits, was what people were asking about.

Sheesh.

Dear Old Dartmouth wrote:

[quote]C/M Runner wrote:

Columbia men recruits announced:

http://www.gocolumbialions.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=9600&ATCLID=208741360

Wow! I know freshmen don't usually make a huge impact on the men's side at Heps, but that recruiting class from Columbia has got to be one of the best the Ivy League has seen in recent years. They may be the favorite to finish second after all, and if they can develop that talent, they may have a shot at winning, even with Princeton's stellar senior class.

Thanks for the link, C/M.

I confess I don't understand why Columbia has seemingly given up on fielding an all-events men's track AND FIELD team. With the same coaching staff (as near as I know), they've developed a highly competitive women's team that has contended for several recent Heps t&f titles (and won one).

Maybe the thinking is: with the men, go for a Heps title in cross; with the women, try for it in track. For all I know, that may be the best strategy, given the realities of their situation, but it does seem strange.

Anyway, agreed: another hellacious mid-/distance group for Columbia! Now if they can just "do the job" versus Princeton's distance guys during track season, Cornell can get back to consistently winning track titles...

BRF - 800m-10k distance point at Heps:

Princeton 75

Columbia 62

Cornell 17

Dartmouth 16

Brown / Penn 6

Harvard 4

Yale 1

Looks like Columbia helped you all out a decent amount.

In field event news, Harvard incoming frosh Elliot Safo won the LJ while Efe Uwaifo placed 4th in the TJ.

Safo's LJ mark would place him 6th all-time in outdoor LJ and would have won outdoor Heps this past year. Meanwhile, Uwaifo's TJ mark would place him outside of the all-time top 10 and placed 2nd at Heps.

Safo Wins Long Jump at European Junior Championships

http://gocrimson.com/sports/track/2013-14/releases/072013_Safo_Euro_Junior

Rieti, Italy – Harvard freshman Elliot Safo ’17 jumped a lifetime-best 25’9.25’’ (7.86m) to win the long jump at the European Athletics Junior Championships over the weekend.

Also at the junior championships, freshman Efe Uwaifo posted a personal-best 51’6.11’’ (15.70m) to take fourth in the triple jump final.

Safo’s mark currently ranks seventh in the world in 2013. The Caterham, England native beat out Mathias Broothaerts of Belgium by under an inch (0.02m).

Cornell women announce their incoming class:

http://www.cornellbigred.com/news/2013/7/30/WXC_0730134831.aspx