Star Junior Places Fifth Overall at Heps
PRINCETON, N.J.—Yale men's cross country team junior Kevin Dooney added yet another accomplishment to his already crowded resume on Saturday, earning first team All-Ivy honors following his fifth-place finish at the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships in Princeton, N.J. The top seven runners at Heps are named to the All-Ivy first team, while the eighth- through 14th-place finishers are named to the second team.
Dooney began Saturday's race looking to improve on his eighth-place finish (and All-Ivy second team selection) at last year's Heps, and he got off to a fast start. The 2013 NCAA National Championships qualifier (just the sixth Yale runner to qualify for Nationals since 1991) sat in fourth place after the opening mile and actually led the entire field at the three-mile mark. He finished with a time of 24:33.6 (more than 20 seconds faster than his time at Heps last season) and finished about 11 seconds behind Penn junior Thomas Awad, the first-place finisher in Saturday's race. Dooney's strong running was absolutely key for his team, and he led the Bulldogs to a fifth-place team finish at the meet—matching their finish from 2013.
Over the past two seasons, Dooney has emerged as the Bulldogs' top runner. In addition to his record-breaking success as a track athlete in the 3,000-meter, 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter events, Dooney has helped lead the Elis' cross country squad as it has surged onto the national scene. His eighth-place finish at last year's Heps powered the team to its best finish at the meet since 2006, and his 11th-place finish (and All-Region selection) at the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships just two weeks later led the team to its best Regionals finish since 2004. A native of Dublin, Ireland, Dooney also represented his home country as a member of Ireland's U-23 squad at the European Cross Country Championships last December. This season, Dooney has finished first on the team at all four meets in which he has competed, even setting a personal record (23:54.4) at the Paul Short Invitational.
Dooney's next race will come at the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships in The Bronx on Nov. 14.
Report by Zach Schloss '15, Yale Sports Publicity
