The official 2017 HEPS CROSS COUNTRY thread

After looking at schedules are online, it seems like there will not be a real "pre-Heps" race before they all congregate at VCP at the end of October.

Paul Short seems to be losing appeal, and the teams seem to be all over the place the weekend of 10/13 (splitting between PreNats, Wisconsin, and PSU).

I need to look at some of the rookies some more. Harvard women will need to find a new 1-2 punch if they want to defend the team title as they lost Smith and Pendergast due to transfers. Yale and Penn women also lost their front strength (1-2-3 for both) from last year, but that was due to graduation.

I think Penn men lost their 1-2-3 due to graduation as well. Princeton seems to be in good shape.

Anything about Curham's health? I hope she can compete this season after missing last year and the internship the year before.

Watch out for Sevanne Ghazarian, freshman at Yale. She got 10th at U20 Canadian National XC Champs in 2016. She also got bronze recently at Pan Am U20 Champs in Peru at the 3000m, with a PB of 9:23.73.

IMHO - rookies to follow (based on their HS creds)

Nick Dahl - Yale - 8x All-American

Matt Grossman - Princeton - 2x All-American in in/out 5km

Abbe Goldstein - Harvard - Millrose Mile Champ

Aislinn Devlin - Harvard - 9th at NXN XC last year

Hugo Milner - Harvard - represented Great Britain at World Jr XC

Ed Trippas - Princeton - represented Australia at World Jr XC

Allie Hays - Columbia - National champ in indoor 4x1mile

Rachel Ludwikowski - Dartmouth - 2x All-American

Sevanne Ghazarian - Yale - represented Canada at Pan Am Jr Champ (silver in steeplechase)

Katherine Trainor - Brown - transfer from Amherst and will be competing as a "sophomore" but she was a D3 All-American in XC last year as a freshman

I could miss some as some of the rosters do not have the rookie bios listed and I did quick google searches on them. Also, Cornell does not have their 2017 rosters listed nor have they advertised their Class of 2021 recruits so I am likely missing someone.

Also, Brown has two Division 3 athlete transfers on their roster: Haley Barthel (Tufts) and Katherine Trainor (Amherst).

Ghazarian doesn't race steeplechase, she got silver at Pan Am's in 3000 flat. Cornell does have their women's recruits advertised http://www.cornellbigred.com/news/2017/7/31/womens-track-field-unveils-21-additions-for-2017-18.aspx?path=wtrack

C/M Runner wrote:

Cornell does not have their 2017 rosters listed nor have they advertised their Class of 2021 recruits so I am likely missing someone.

I wasn't able to find a 2017 roster for xc, but the Big Red women's recruits for the Class of '21 were publicized a month ago:

The Cornell squad was a somewhat surprising fifth in last year's Heps: Normally more assertive, the Big Red squad seemed to run tentatively and was never in the mix. They rebounded very strongly to take another fifth (out of ~40) at Regionals.

The Big Red had a young squad last year: Of the twelve Cornell women who ran Heps, I believe that only the mercurial Taylor Spillane graduated this spring. (She's on Syracuse's roster this fall as a grad student and may have fifth-year eligibility for all three seasons.) In addition to all the returnees, Artie Smith--newly elevated to the head coach's position for women's t&f/xc--brought in a large group of rookies. Here's some info on a few of them, as gleaned from the press release and a quick Google check:

Isabella Dobson (CA) 10:49

Annie Glodek (PA) 10:49 (also 5:04, NXN)

Kyra Hunsberger (NV) 10:40 (also 2:15, 4:56)

Raisa Kochmaruk (PA) 11:08

Gabrielle Orie (NY) 10:00m (also 6:59/2kSC)

Kenenni Wiegand (MT) 11:09 (also 5:11, 46th NXN)

Melissa Zammitti (NC) 10:54 (also 2:13, 4:56)

In addition, a couple of middle-distance who possibly could help in cross:

Kelly Jawork (PA) 2:11, 4:51

Leya Salis (NH) 2:07, 4:45

Ok, thanks for the links and the correction (I'm used to seeing 3k as SC, which is probably why I got the incorrect thought).

It's weird Cornell published the women's recruits and not the men's. I see they made the announcement of Mike Henderson being hired on the same day.

From what information I have seen and looking at last year's HepsXC results, I would have the Princeton men as the favorites while Harvard and Yale women are about even for the women's team title.

Looks like Cornell's first-order cross country rosters are up. The women's includes 44 names, and all the rookies listed above are on it.

http://www.cornellbigred.com/roster.aspx?path=wcross&

The men's roster has 31 names. That includes seven frosh, for whom no further info is yet given. I'll try to find out a little more via Google and post it later--expect multiple updates/changes to both rosters in the coming week, in any case!

http://www.cornellbigred.com/roster.aspx?path=mcross&

Okay, didn't want to go nuts looking for info on the Cornell men's newcomers for cross country. As mentioned, the roster is possibly incomplete now and will be updated next week. I found relevant results for two of the rookies: Warren Blood (IL) and Paul Casavant (ME), both at 9:14.

C/M Runner wrote:

From what information I have seen and looking at last year's HepsXC results, I would have the Princeton men as the favorites while Harvard and Yale women are about even for the women's team title.

I'd agree Princeton for men, probably Harvard for the women's title.

Something I noticed was that two athletes who were originally on their team's respective websites as incoming freshmen are now removed. Maddie Ghazarian, Sevanne's twin sister, 9th at 2016 Canadian U20 XC nationals, was listed at Yale. 2016 OFSAA 3000m champion Christiane Konstantopoulos was listed on Princeton's site but not anymore either.

Penn was in action today https://www.tfrrs.org/results/xc/11909.html

BRF wrote:

Leya Salis (NH) 2:07, 4:45

Small correction: Apparently Salis's 4:45 was for a mile, not (as previously implied) a 1600. So 4:43-ish for 1600.

Princeton men and Harvard gotta be the favorites

*harvard women

Why would the Harvard women be favorites when their two best runners transferred and a number of their distance runners were injured at the end of last year? There were numerous threads about this situation associated with the now departed coach.

I actually think the women's meet is as open as it's been in years. Cornell was mentioned above: returning eleven of twelve from last year, some good newcomers, who knows? And they finished in the bottom half last year! All the teams that were ahead of them at 2016 Heps (and I do include Harvard as a possibility, despite their difficulties) have a shot IMO.

Still no "welcome newcomers" press release (that I've found) for the Cornell men. Seems a little strange that they didn't do one, but maybe with the coaching changes they have more important stuff to do first?

They do have this year's t&f rosters up, at least...

Also wanted to throw in the names of some Ivy graduates transferring for 5th years to follow this fall. Connor Clark of Dartmouth is headed to Oregon and Mark Tedder of Cornell to Colorado. Any others of note?