Even when a Princeton team has surpassed most of its competition in the Ivy League and is a national contender, it still provides a sense of excitement to meet the challenge of conference foes. So it is that the men's and women's cross country teams head to Van Cortland Park in the Bronx this Halloween for the Heptagonal Championships.
On the women's side, the Tigers will be looking to avenge last year's disappointing fourth place finish in the annual race, which includes Navy as well as the eight Ivy League schools.
This year's team has been exceeding expectations all around, and with its recent sixth-place finish at Pre-Nationals in Iowa, Princeton is currently ranked No. 14 in the NCAA Division I poll. Star runners sophomore Cack Ferrell and senior Emily Kroshus highlighted that race for the Tigers, coming in sixth and eleventh, respectively. Princeton has high hopes coming into Heps.
Jimmy Carter was president the last time Princeton won an Ivy League women's cross country championship, a fact this year's team would like to change. Their toughest competition will certainly come from last year's champions, Columbia, who are currently ranked No. 12 in the nation. The Lions will most likely try to use their pack running style to take control of the five kilometer course, the home course for the school, located only one borough away.
"The competition is boiling down to a two horse race," head coach Peter Farrell acknowledged. "The key to taking this year's Heps will be breaking up [Columbia's] pack."
Princeton's unexpected success thus far has led it to dream big. This race, the start of the postseason, gives the Tigers a chance to see what they can do. Heps has been a focus of the team for months, and as Farrell puts it, this is one of "the three races you point to back in June."
The men's team, while not having quite the same breakout year as the women, still has a good race to look forward to next Saturday in New York. Last year, the Tigers came in third behind Dartmouth and Columbia.
This year, though none of the teams competing in next week's race are ranked nationally, Princeton is considered a favorite, and has received a number of votes in the national coaches polls. The Tigers' main rivals will be Brown and Columbia, but head coach Mike Brady warns that "everybody always rises to the occasion for Heps."
Princeton finished 14th last weekend at the Pre-Nationals race in Iowa, behind a strong showing from senior Tristan Colangelo. The only other Ivy League teams in that race, Columbia and Penn, finished well behind the Tigers, in 20th and 26th, respectively. "The only team we haven't defeated here is Brown," Brady said. "We need focus, composure, and positive thoughts."
Without a race this weekend, both the men and the women are making the most of two solid weeks of training as they prepare for the series of championship races starting with Heps. The women will have NCAA regionals, the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships, and finally NCAA Championships. The men will run in the NCAA regionals, Intercollegiate-4As, and the NCAA Championships.
The men plan to use this two-week period to maintain the same level of hard training, with the task of doing well in the NCAA Championships as a clearly defined goal. Brady says that they will continue running 65-85 miles per week. The women, on the other hand, plan to stategically begin tapering their training schedule to be in peak form for the entire postseason.
The course at Van Cortland Park is a familiar one for many of the runners. The women's team raced there earlier in the season at the Iona Meet of Champions, and the park is the annual home for the Ivy League Championships for both teams. In addition, many runners from the northeast region have been running there for years, as it is the location of the regional qualifying race for the national high school cross country championships.
Both the men's and the women's teams have been working hard all season, their confidence is up, and with the help of a little Halloween magic, the Tigers could pull off something special this Oct. 31.
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