Teams: Columbia, Princeton, Dartmouth, Harvard, Yale, Penn, Cornell, Brown

Men:

What To Watch: Perhaps no conference meet is filled with as much pride and history as the Ivy League. Held since 1939, Heptagonals (named for the original track meet with seven schools) has rarely been run outside of historic Van Cortlandt Park, which has hosted 69 separate times, but this year the northeastern staple returns to Princeton, N.J for the second straight year. With the advantage of running on their home course, the Princeton Tigers will be tough to beat on Saturday at Heps. 

The Princeton men won Heps three years in a row from 2010-2012, and will enter this year’s meet as the clear favorites to take home their fourth crown in five years. Led by senior Sam Pons, the Tigers had their most impressive race at the Notre Dame Invite, where they finished 8th and took down both N.C. State and Tulsa. While Pons finished 12th in that race, his 135th place showing at Wisco was a disaster, and spoiled any chance for Princeton to grab some valuable Kolas points at the season’s most competitive meet. Although Pons disappointed, senior Matt McDonald was the silver lining for coach Jason Vigilante’s squad, as he placed 50th at Wisco after finishing 62nd at Notre Dame. McDonald was Princeton’s #1 at Wisco, after finishing as their fourth runner in South Bend. If both Pons and McDonald can run to their capabilities this weekend (they were 15th and 16th at Heps in 2013, respectively), Princeton will have two low sticks carry them to a title. 

Last year’s champion Columbia does not have the same firepower that saw them place all 5 in the top 20. Gone are Nico Composto (2nd), John Gregorek (4th), and Jake Sienko (17th), who helped the Lions win one of the deepest Heps races in history last year. The two carry-overs from Columbia’s top 5, Jack Boyle and Daniel Everett, were less than promising at Wisco, finishing 73rd and 80th as Columbia limped to a 27th place showing. 

The clear favorite in the individual race is Penn’s Tommy Awad. Awad is the highest returner from last year’s race (3rd), and he has shown excellent form on the grass thus far in 2014. The man with the ‘stache was fourth in the highly competitive Notre Dame Invite, ahead of Purdue All-American Matt McClintock, and took home a victory at the Princeton Invite two weekends ago. Awad’s biggest asset is his finishing ability, as his 3:58 mile speed can’t be matched by anyone else in the field. 

The biggest threat to Awad will be Yale’s Kevin Dooney. Dooney was eighth at Heps 2013, and was very impressive at Paul Short, taking seventh and beating D2 star Kevin Batt of Adams State. The junior was good, not great at Pre-Nats, placing 27th, and he’ll be hard pressed to take down Awad if he’s not on top of his game. For us, Awad is only getting started as he seems poised to earn his first All-American honor later this season in Terre Haute. 

Women:

Seven time NCAA champion Abbey D’Agostino is now a professional, leaving a vacancy for the title of best female distance runner in the Ivy League. Who will assume that role? After her 2nd place finish at Pre-Nats, Princeton sophomore Megan Curham appears ready to win an individual title at Heps and do even more damage in Terre Haute. 

Curham will head to New Jersey this weekend as the favorite to take down Saucony Flo50 #22 Dana Giordano of Dartmouth. Curham herself is ranked #15 in the Flo50, and looked far better at Pre-Nats than Giordano did at Wisco. At Wisco, Giordano finished a respectable 19th in a loaded race, but it was Curham, who beat Flo50 #6 Erin Finn in Terre Haute, that really caught our attention. 

These two should provide the biggest fireworks of the weekend in Princeton. At last year’s Heps, Curham edged Giodano by one place, but three weeks later Giordano got her revenge at NCAAs, where she placed 31st and Curham was 34th, separated by just one second. 

With no Abbey D, Rachel Sorna, or Waverly Neer in the field, Curham and Giordano are the class of this field. 

Led by Curham and Giordano, both Princeton and Dartmouth should compete for the coveted team title. Dartmouth is the defending champion after they scored a remarkable 38 points last year, but they will face a much tougher go of it without D’Agostino. 

It’s tough to compare team performances from Wisco and Pre-Nats because the former was a lot more competitive, but it’s fair to say that Princeton had a better showing two weekends ago in Terre Haute. With Curham’s 2nd place finish helping tremendously, Princeton placed sixth, just 55 points behind top 10 ranked N.C. State. This team is young, with their top 4 all returning next year, so this Princeton squad is just starting to gain momentum. 

Of course Dartmouth has experience on its side that should help them overcome Princeton’s youth and home-field advantage. Although Dartmouth placed a disappointing 19th at Wisco, their average time was 21:13, a whole 19 seconds faster than Princeton’s average at Pre-Nats. You can’t really compare times from two different courses, but that big of a margin suggests that Princeton was hiding behind a much less competitive meet in Terre Haute.

Predicition: Men’s Team- Princeton, Men’s Individual- Tommy Awad; Women’s Team- Dartmouth, Women’s Individual- Megan Curham