It has been quite a season for the Penn men's cross country team.
After starting this fall by winning two of its first three meets, at Fordham's Ram Run and Lehigh's Paul Short Memorial, and coming in 26th place at Pre-Nationals in Terra Haute, Ind., the Quakers will finish their cross country season with the Heptagonal Cross Country Championships.
The Heps are the Ivy League championships for cross country and will be run at Van Cortlandt Park in New York City.
The favorite to take the meet is Dartmouth, the two-time defending champions, who finished seventh overall at Pre-Nationals and are currently ranked 24th in the nation.
Dartmouth senior Tom McArdle is expected to repeat as individual Heps champion this year as he has clearly been the best runner in the Ancient Eight this season.
Princeton, currently the No. 32 team in the nation, is expected to challenge the Big Green for the title after finishing third last season.
Others expected to vie for the title are Navy and Columbia.
The Quakers are not expected to finish on top this year as they have consistently fared poorly against the elite Ivy squads. Nevertheless, they are expected to finish better this year than last year's last place showing.
This year's squad is the youngest in the Ancient Eight, featuring one freshman, five sophomores and just one senior in its top seven spots.
The sophomore trio of Dusty Lieb, Nolan Tully and Stephen Hayes is expected to develop into one of the best in the Ivies, but they lack the big meet experience that the other top programs have.
Nevertheless, the team remains confident that they can surprise a lot of people at Heps, perhaps even win the whole thing.
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