ITHACA, N.Y. – For the first time since 2002, last season's Outdoor Heptagonal Championship saw the Big Red men walk away without a title. This weekend, Cornell will be looking to get its crown back.

One year after a second-place finish, the Big Red will be heading to Penn's Franklin Field on Saturday and Sunday with a chance to once again prove its Ivy League dominance.

The 2012 Outdoor Heps begins on Saturday at 10:50 a.m. with the men's 100-meter decathlon race, and the women begin Saturday at 11:35 with their 100-meter heptathlon hurdles. Saturday's last events are the men's 10,000-meter run at 5 p.m. and the women's 10K at 5:45 p.m.

Sunday, action resumes with the men's 110 decathlon hurdles at 9:30 a.m., while the women begin their Sunday with the long jump at 10 a.m. The entire weekend concludes with the women's 4x400 relay at 4:35 p.m. and the men's 1,500 decathlon run at 4:45 p.m. The awards ceremony will be held shortly after at 5.

Despite the second-place overall finish in 2011, the Big Red claimed multiple individual events. Nick Wade, now a junior, won the 800 in 1:50.15. Dan Hagberg, now a senior co-captain, claimed the 110 hurdles title in 14.40 seconds. Brian Freitas took home the 400 hurdles crown in 51.99, and Gary Jones won the triple jump with a leap of 50' 6 3/4”. The Big Red's 4x100 relay team also emerged victorious, as the quartet of Chase Aaronson, Jedidiah Adarquah-Yiadom, Andrew Ahart and Chris Tait crossed the finish line in just 40.66 seconds.

Princeton won last year's Outdoor Heptagonal Championship by a mere 11 points over Cornell.

This season's Indoor Heptagonal Championship, held at Barton Hall, held similar results for Cornell. The Big Red fell by just eight points to the Tigers and placed second. For the Big Red, Hagberg claimed the 60-meter hurdles, Steven Bell won the long jump and Nick Huber was the heptathlon champion.

Cornell will be familiar with Philadelphia, as the team competed in last weekend's Penn Relays with some measure of success. The Big Red won the Heps section of the 4x400 and earned a remarkable second-place finish in the Championship section of the high jump from sophomore Montez Blair. Overall, the Big Red had 10 IC4A qualifiers, four changes to the all-time top 10 lists and a new school record. They will hope to carry that momentum back to Philly this weekend.