Championship Central

PRINCETON, N.J. -- The Ivy League Heptagonal Women's Cross Country Championship returns to West Windsor Fields, where Columbia looks to defend its title.

The women’s race begins at 11 a.m, with the men's race shortly thereafter at noon.

Last season saw Columbia claim its fifth overall title and first since 2005, holding off Dartmouth by seven points in the closest finish since 2011, when Cornell edged the Lions by two. But with four teams appearing in the national rankings, and nine returning All-Ivy performers representing five schools, the 2018 Ivy Heps Championship is anyone’s race.

The Lions hope to win their second-straight title for the second time in program history and first since winning four in a row from 2002-05. They enter the championship ranked 20th in the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) national poll and first in the Northeast Region, one of four Ivy teams in the national poll along with Princeton (No. 30), Yale (RV) and Dartmouth RV).

Columbia returns senior Erin Gregoire and junior Abigail McLaughlin, who finished 16th and 37th at last year’s Ivy Heps. Dartmouth brings back three All-Ivy runners from 2017 in senior Olivia Lantz, junior Julia Stevenson and sophomore Ella Ketchum, as the Big Green looks for its first title since going back-to-back in 2013-14. 

A Princeton runner has finished first three of the last four years and the Tigers return the defending individual champion in Gabrielle Forrest, who hopes to not only lead her team to its first title since 2015 but also become the 11th two-time individual champion and first since Dartmouth’s Abbey D’Agostino. 

Yale senior Andrea Masterson, the runner-up from a year ago, looks to give Yale the top spot for the first time since Lindsay Donaldson in 2006. The Bulldogs also bring back sophomores Sevanne Ghazarian and Kayley DeLay, who took sixth and 12th last year, respectively.

The Orie twins, Gabrielle (Cornell) and Danielle (Penn) went 7-8 in 2017; both are back for their respective squads. Harvard sophomore Abbe Goldstein (23rd) and Brown seniors Carleen Jeffers (24th) and Lucy Srour (29th) hope to improve from their finishes last season.