NEW YORK – The Yale women's cross country team took second place (82 points) at the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships Friday morning at Van Cortlandt Park. This marks Yale's best finish at Heps since finishing second in 2016 (with 69 points). The Bulldogs had a 21 point margin over the third-place team, Columbia (103). Princeton (27 points) won.
Senior
Claire Archer was the Bulldogs' top finisher, taking fourth place with a time of 21:01.9. Princeton's Anna McNatt finished first (20:35.0).
With NCAA Regionals coming up, Heps also provided a chance for Yale to measure itself against several other Northeast Region teams. The Bulldogs entered the race ranked fifth in the region. Other Ivy League teams in the Northeast rankings were:
- No. 3 Harvard (fifth at Heps, 112 points)
- No. 9 Cornell (sixth at Heps, 115 points)
- No. 10 Columbia (third at Heps, 103 points)
- No. 11 Brown (seventh at Heps, 169 points)
- No. 14 Dartmouth (eighth at Heps, 190 points)
(Princeton was No. 5 and Penn was No. 6 in the Mid-Atlantic Region rankings)
The Bulldogs:
- Senior Claire Archer (21:01.9) matched her fourth-place Heps finish from a year ago. Archer was among the top four throughout the race. She receives first team All-Ivy League recognition for finishing in the top seven. The league will formally announce the awards next week.
- Senior Charlotte Whitehurst (10th, 21:36.7) was next across the line for Yale. She receives second team All-Ivy League recognition, given to those who finish eighth through 14th.
- First-year Phoebe Benun (16th, 21:50.2) was Yale's third finisher. She was second among all first-years at the race; only Princeton's Caroline Barton (fifth, 21:12.5) finished ahead of her. Benun had the team's fastest split in the final .9K (2:57.4), moving up four spots in that span.
- Senior captain Linde Fonville (26th, 22:01.9) led a pack of Bulldogs that also included junior Hebe Chadwick (30th, 22:07.0) and junior Daniella Henderson (33rd, 22:13.4).
- Sophomore Sylvie Sanok Dufallo (47th, 22:33.6) was Yale's seventh finisher.
- Rounding out Yale's finishers were senior Cara Joyce (61st, 23:06.0), sophomore Lily Jin (63rd, 23:09.7), senior Anna Chamberlin (67th, 23:22.3), senior Miranda Lorsbach (72nd, 23:44.2) and sophomore Zoe Martonfi (91st, 26:13.7).
Up Next:
- Yale will compete at the NCAA Northeast Regionals on Friday, Nov. 14 at Hopkinton State Fairgrounds in Contoocook, N.H. The Bulldogs placed 11th at Regionals last year.
- NCAA Championships selections will be announced by 5:00 p.m. ET Saturday, Nov. 15 on ncaa.com.
- The NCAA Men's and Women's Cross Country Championships provide for a maximum of 32 (five-to-seven-person) teams and 38 individuals per gender.
- Eighteen teams automatically qualify for the championships races by finishing as one of the top two teams at any of the nine regional races.
- The remaining 14 at-large teams are selected by the NCAA Division I Cross Country Subcommittee.
- Thirty-six individuals automatically qualify for the championships races by being one of the top four regional finishers not on an advancing team.
- Two additional individuals are selected at-large by the committee.
