HEPS XC predictions!

6 more days. I am tingling with excitement.

Still not sure whether I'll go to the meet or not. I'd have to miss work, where I get paid by the hour billed--maybe if it's a really nice day I'll bite the bullet and give up the couple-hundred bucks.

Will this be the last team meet for the Cornell men? Can't imagine that Canaday will run any more cross races this season...

So does the fact that Ture showed up at a meet with us and ran with the dartmouth team count as training with them? At least im pretty sure it was him.

Three more days!!

WTF is everyone talking about? True would man handle anyone in the Ivy League. Apparently, he is the best skier, or whatev in the country, but nobody cares about that sport. I wish he gave it up completely and ran track and croos all year round. He would be scary fast in a 3k or 5k. I'm not even surprised anymore when he pacing top 30 of NCAA's then waits till outdoor track to start dropping 150's and 340's whenever, wherever. He can very well be 1325 this year if he ran.

Wow, it's looking like conditions may be very good for the meet on Friday: some rain on Wednesday, a good drying day on Thursday, sun and ~60 degrees on Friday morning. I may have to come into work late after all.

Where do you work BRF?

Wyner, Princeton.

2 days...

The men’s race this year could end up looking very much like it did last year. Princeton’s Distance Coach Steve Dolan speaks of the Ivy League’s unusually “strong senior class,” as nearly two-thirds of last year’s top-25 is back again this year.

Princeton returns six of its seven top-25 performers from a year ago (Seniors Dave Nightingale, Robert Grote, Tim O’Neill, Juniors Michael Maag and Brett Campfield, and Sophomore Ben Sitler). Senior Frank Tinney has also had an excellent 2007 season, highlighted by a strong performance at Pre-Nationals.

The Cornell men will provide the most serious challenge to Princeton for the top spot. The Big Red return senior co-captains Jimmy Wyner and Sage Canaday, both in the top 12 at last year’s Ivy Championships. If a few more runners can win the individual battles in the race, Cornell could be a real threat to rain on the Princeton parade. But the Big Red will have to be in top form to do so.

“On paper,” says Coach Robert Johnson, Cornell “should be second, but Heps is always very competitive and there are several teams that easily could beat us if we don’t run really well.”

Columbia finds itself in the same position as the women: second at last year’s Championships. The Lions are one of the teams looking to prove that championships are not won on paper. On a challenging course where experience matters, Paul Morris and Jeff Randall (top-20 from last year) should help Columbia challenge for a top spot again this year.

“Princeton and Cornell will bring a bus load of Goliaths to Van Cortlandt Park,” says Coach Willy Wood: “Our ‘Davids’ are collecting pebbles hoping for another miracle.”

Several other Ivy League teams are coming off big wins, and should not be taken lightly. Brown is fresh off a victory at the New-England Championships, and returns its top runner from last year in Christian Escareno. The Big Green of Dartmouth appropriately won the Dartmouth Invitational, and is led by Senior Harry Norton, who has experience and great ability. Injuries have hurt Penn this year, including the loss of Reid McEwen with a knee injury at Pre-Nationals. The Quakers will look to improve on a sixth place finish in 2006 with the return of Brian Goldberg.

Finally, Harvard and Yale — perhaps the most storied rivalry in the Ivy League — carries extra significance this year, as it is the 100th anniversary of the men’s race. Harvard’s strong senior class — led by Captain Brian Holmquest — defeated Yale for the first time in their collegiate careers. The Bulldogs will be looking for redemption at Heps behind No. 1 Jake Gallagher (top-10 Heps, '06), who won the Murray Keatinge Invitational.

Women...

The general pre-race consensus in the women's race is that — for Princeton not to win — its lead pack would have to get lost on the winding course. Princeton returns its top three runners (Christy Johnson, Liz Costello and Jolee VanLeuven) from a year ago. Barring a major catastrophe, it is hard to believe that anything will keep the Lady Tigers from repeating as Ivy League Champions. Current owners of 4th-place in the NCAA polls, they have yet to lose a meet this year, including impressive wins at the prolific Paul Short Invitational and Pre-National meets against the nation's best.

“The whole season has been a highlight for us,” says Coach Peter Farrell, who notes that—opposite of the men’s race—the women’s championship this year "should be dominated by underclass performers."

In fact, Lindsay Donaldson — a five time all-American and top-3 finisher at last year’s NCAA Championships — is one of the few strong upper-class runners in the meet. She leads a Yale squad full of young talent that is looking to challenge for the title after finishing second at the Murray Keatinge Invitational this season.

The Columbia women’s team finished second-place a year ago, and it will again try to challenge for the top spot. Carmen Ballard (4th at ’06 Heps) has been their top runner each meet. No other school knows the course as well as the Lions and that could be a large advantage in potentially difficult weather.

Cornell — which has been flirting with a national ranking all season — has registered some key victories over national powerhouses such as Tennessee, whom they have beaten twice. Ariel Emig missed a top-25 finish by one spot last year, and is back with a strong group of underclass runners whom many have picked to finish second in the Ivy League this year.

The remaining teams all have the ability to create some interesting storylines in the race. Penn returns one of the more veteran squads in the league, including its top runners from a year ago (Stacy Kim, Leah Brogan, and Claire Kim). Dartmouth's Susan Drunklee (14th, '06), Brown's Jenna Ridgway — who finished second at the Iona Meet of Champions on this very course — and Sarah Bourne of Harvard should make for an intriguing individual competition.

http://ivyleaguesports.com/article.asp?intID=6246

heptagonal gamesmanship wrote:

Where do you work BRF?

Midtown Manhattan.

Also, the forecast has changed significantly since I posted that two days ago--I may be at VCP only in spirit...

But GO BIG RED anyway!

Too bad you'll miss the Columbia men beat your team like always.

BRF wrote:

heptagonal gamesmanship wrote:

Where do you work BRF?

Midtown Manhattan.

Also, the forecast has changed significantly since I posted that two days ago--I may be at VCP only in spirit...

But GO BIG RED anyway!

Best academicks in the champeenship!

NYer 4 wrote:

Too bad you'll miss the Columbia men beat your team like always.

why would "always" have any bearing on tomorrow's race? it's a different team....

results

Princeton dominates as expected, very good runs from both squads. A nice showing from Cornell, with 3 in the top 10, but it was Princeton's race to lose and they didn't. Olympic Trials marathon qualifier Canaday ran tough but couldn't pull off the win against a great looking Maag. Props to the Harvard men for not being the league's doormat despite not even being ranked in the NE for most of the season. The Princton women's squad would have still won had the meet been scored as a dual meet, Princton v. Rest of Ivy League. If that's not dominance, I don't know what is. Best of luck to them at NCAAs. If they do pull off a high showing (or even win), which they're obviously capable of, what's the highest showing by a non-scholarship school ever at NCAAs?

Thanks for the link. Geez, the Cornell women had a terrible day--I hope everybody's all right...

Meanwhile, congrats to the dominant Princeton squads and to RoJo's men.

Congrats to Princeton, the women are crazy good.

Harvard women are 5th with 5 freshmen, looking up there. Olsen is beaten only by Princeton's Higginson among the freshmen.

Some good looking freshmen times on the men's side too with Harvards's Chenoweth, Dannemiller (Cornell) and Poland(Columbia) running considerably faster than the fast but over-hyped Tolev from Penn. Chenoweth beats Princeton 5, would be 2 or 3 on any other Ivy today.

A good start for Saretsky's first recruiting class.

Sorry to see Scherf out of action again.

NYer 4 wrote:

Too bad you'll miss the Columbia men beat your team like always.

I'm assuming you're not gonna be posting anymore....

f they do pull off a high showing (or even win), which they're obviously capable of, what's the highest showing by a non-scholarship school ever at NCAAs?

Dartmouth men were 2nd one year. Not sure a school without scholarships has ever won. My alma mater Bucknell also is non scholarship and was 12th in 1982 and 13th in 1991.