Tigers Top Both Men and Women at Heps

Despite valiant efforts by the cross country teams, the Red was no match for the Princeton Tigers this weekend. Cornell’s men’s and women’s teams both placed in the top half of the Ivy League standings, but neither was able to match the Tigers at the Heptagonal Championships in New York City on Friday.
On the men’s side, the Red slipped one spot from its ranking last year and finished behind Princeton and Columbia. The Tigers won the Ivy League crown for the second straight year, tallying 58 points. Columbia finished just behind Princeton with 61 points. The Red was third with 75.
“We were hoping for a higher finish, but the other two teams in front of us ran great races,” said senior Zac Hine. “It wasn’t what we wanted, but we ran as hard as we could.”
Hine turned in perhaps the most impressive performance of his collegiate career on Friday. Competing at Heps for the final time, Hine finished the five-mile course in 24:43.3. His stellar time earned him a third place overall finish behind only Dartmouth senior Ben True and Princeton senior Michael Maag, who finished first and second, respectively.
“I was able to work my way up through the race pretty well,” Hine said. “I was pretty pleased [with my result]. I ran about as well as I could have run.”
Sophomore Adrien Dannemiller cut over fourteen seconds off of his time from a year ago and finished 14th. Classmate Nate Edelman clocked in with the 17th best time. A pair of upperclassmen broke into the scoring for Cornell, as well, as junior Pete Loy and senior Andy Miller finished 18th and 23rd, respectively.
On the women’s side, Princeton won the Ivy League crown for the third consecutive year. The Tigers dominated the competition — placing five runners in the top-6. While only five runners per team counted toward a team’s point total, Princeton had nine runners finish in the top-11.
Although Cornell could not match Princeton, it was the only other team with three runners who earned scores of 16 or better. The Red took a major step forward after their disappointing seventh-place finish a season ago and claimed fourth place.
Senior Marie Parks led the way for the Red and completed the 5k course in just over 18 minutes. Aside from the Princeton runners, only two Ivy Leaguers finished faster.
“I’m pretty happy with [my performance],” Parks said. “That was my [personal record] on that course.”
Junior Stephanie Pancoast, who finished seventh overall a season ago, was twelfth on Friday. Senior captain Aeriel Emig placed 16th. She had been 28th and 26th during her first two seasons, but did not score for the team last season.
Freshman Meghan Brown added to her growing list of rookie-year achievements with a 30th place overall finish at Heps. She had the fourth-best time among all competing freshman. Senior Fiona Cundy broke into the Red’s top-five at Heps for the first time as a senior. She rounded out the scoring by placing 32nd.
“We are glad that we did better than [we did] last year, but I think we all had high expectations, so coming in fourth was kind of a disappointment relative to what we wanted to do and what we’re capable of,” Parks said.