Results

PRINCETON, N.J. – On a wet, snowy morning at West Windsor Fields, the Cornell men's cross country team put together a solid overall effort to place fifth in the 2011 Heptagonal Championships.

After finishing fourth last year, the team graduated the terrific trio of Matt De Silva and NCAA qualifiers Adrien Dannemiller and Nate Edelman. Many expected a big drop-off this year, but the team has improved every week and Cornell gave a very good effort in demanding circumstances on Saturday, placing fifth with 125 points, well clear of Yale (162), Harvard (184) and Penn (233).

After sunny skies and a well-groomed course greeted the teams for the pre-meet run-through on Friday, a historic October nor'easter slammed the mid-Atlantic states on Saturday morning and an already dramatic meet added yet another sub-plot. This was no mere storm: driving wind and rain in the morning soaked the course and snow began to fall as the men's 8K was underway – a race that saw several falls on an incredibly slick course and in very cold conditions. By the time the men finished, snow covered the course and the women were off under gusting winds and the air thick with heavy snow. At the end of the women's race, three inches of snow had fallen in the area and if the ground wasn't covered in snow, it was churned up in mud.

In fact, the Big Red was closer to fourth than sixth. No. 9 Princeton won for the second straight year with 37 points, No. 28 Columbia was a close second with 51, Dartmouth ran third with 79 and Brown scored 91.

Cornell was led by a breakout Heps effort from junior Brett Kelly. Despite taking a hard fall midway through the race, Kelly finished a career best 11th in 25:19.1 to earn second team All-Ivy honors. Only 57th at the 2010 Heps, Kelly has improved tremendously in the last year. He was followed by fellow Wisconsin native Gabe Heck. The sophomore placed 26th in 25:40.5 (12 places better than last year) and he crossed the line in tandem with classmate Max Groves, who continued his outstanding season with a 27th place run of 26:40.8.

Junior Matt McCullough was close behind in 33rd, running 25:43.0 for an eight-place improvement from 2010.  Freshman Ben Potts was the fifth-best rookie in the race and closed out Cornell's scoring with a 35th-place run of 25:45.4. Senior captain Chandler Kemp has been a strong leader all season for this young group and he turned in another good effort to finish 43rd in 25:48.7 – 28 places better than last year. Junior Kevin Johnson closed out the team's top seven with a 48th-place finish in 25:56.3.

Also competing for Cornell were sophomore John Schilkowski (61st, 26:14.1), sophomore David Forward (69th, 26:26.2), junior Andy Arnold (72nd, 26:30.6), sophomore Andrew Herring (79th, 26:47.2) and sophomore Chris Christoff (86th, 27:07.1).

Although they will lose a strong senior leader in Kemp, the rest of the Cornell team returns next year and with the top six runners in the race all graduating, the League will look different next year and this will be an experienced and very capable team in 2012.

Next up for Cornell is the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships in Buffalo on Nov. 12, where bids to the NCAA Championships will be on the line.