This Saturday, the Red set off to compete at the annual Ivy League Heptagonal Championship, held in Princeton, New Jersey, at Princeton University’s course. Both the men’s and women’s teams were optimistic, as this season has been one of the most successful in recent years.
But the results failed to meet the expectations of the Red, as the women’s team placed seventh out of the eight teams that competed. The loss was particularly difficult for the team to swallow, as the Red’s score was only one point away from Dartmouth’s sixth-place finish.
Junior Rebbecca Hasser (7th, 20:53.5), the top finisher for the Red, said she was disappointed by the overall results of the race.
“We were all trying to get up there as high as we could,” Hasser said. “We have a lot of talented people on our team this year and we’re capable of a lot more.”
The men’s team also struggled to keep up with the intense competition. The team placed 6th out of eight teams overall; senior captain Matthew Fusco led the team with a 16th-place individual finish, ringing in at 24:29.4.
Fusco expressed similar disappointment towards the day’s unfurlings and said the team struggled to maintain its positions in the second half of the race.
“We were expecting it to play out a little differently,” Fusco said. “The course went out a lot faster than we thought, but I think we did a good job positioning ourselves in the first mile. We just weren’t able to hold onto the pace.”
Fusco said he hoped this meet’s results will help the team bounce back for the NCAA Northeast Regionals.
“It leaves us feeling pretty motivated for regionals in the next two weeks,” Fusco said. “We have to move on from it, take the lessons we’ve learned and do a better job finding each other out on the course. Hopefully we can put it together for a better race next time.”
Like Fusco, Hasser also looks ahead to the regional competition.
“We all have a lot we can work on for regionals,” Hasser said. “At the very least, we learned a lot from the day and we’ll be ready in two weeks.”
The NCAA Northeast Regionals are scheduled for Nov. 12th and will be held in Boston.