Yale Athletics

This past Saturday, Yale’s cross country team took on their conference competitors at the 2024 Ivy League Cross Country Heptagonal Championships, known as “Heps,” in Princeton, N.J. 

Heps has not been hosted at Princeton since 2021, and combined with their recent renovations, many runners were unsure what to expect. The Tigers, familiar with the Princeton course, claimed both the women’s and men’s titles. Yale women’s team secured third, substantially improving from its sixth-place finish last year. The men’s team placed fifth, earning eight personal records.

“The course was challenging, with a mix of longer hills and curvy sections where it was imperative to look for the tangent and find the shortest path,” Claire Archer ’26 wrote to the News. 

Runners were motivated to finish Heps strong given the crowd turnout and, as Linde Fonville ’26 wrote, the “love and support” from their fellow teammates.

“The energy was electric, with teammates and spectators cheering us on,” Archer wrote to the News. “This positive atmosphere certainly motivated me to push harder.”

Archer and Fonville were Yale’s top finishers, earning fourth and tenth place, respectively. Both runners were named Women’s All-Ivy League performers, with Archer earning First Team and Fonville earning Second Team.

This title holds even greater weight for Archer. She has struggled with injuries over the past two years which made the designation all the more important. 

“Every time that I get to step on the starting line, I’m reminded of how lucky I am to be there with my teammates. I’m thrilled to earn All-Ivy — it reflects not just personal success but our collective effort as a team,” Archer wrote. 

Fonville attributed much of her success to her team, saying she “would not have been able to finish where [she] did if it weren’t for the way we challenge and encourage each other.”

The two built on their previous success, being named All-East Honorees from the ECAC Championships alongside Charlotte Whitehurst ’26, Hebe Chadwick ’27, Iris Bergman ’25 and Zoe Martonfi ’28.

Archer and Fonville’s standout efforts at Heps are closely followed by their teammates which helped them secure the third-place team finish. Marisa Poe ’26 and Whitehurst finished in the top 30, and Cara Joyce ’26 had a remarkable 40-second personal record. 

“I think placing third was something we all knew we could accomplish, but after crossing the line and hearing about the third place finish, we were all overcome with emotion and gratitude,” Fonville wrote. 

The top seven finishers finished in the top 50 out of 93 competing athletes. 

The men’s team placed fifth, moving backward from their fourth-place finish at Heps last year. Despite the disappointment, eight of Yale’s twelve runners set personal records. 

The competitive field pushed top scorers Leo Brewer ’25, Owen Karas ’26 and Kenan Pala ’26 to personal records within seven seconds of one another, securing seventeenth, eighteenth, and twentieth, respectively. Pala improved his score by nine places from last year, showing a promising upward trajectory for his return to Heps next year. 

Daegan Cutter ’27 and Captain Varun Oberai ’25 rounded out the top five scoring places, all coming in the top 40 out of 95 competing athletes. 

The Bulldogs will compete in the NCAA Northeast Regional Cross Country Meet in Hopkinton Fairgrounds in New Hampshire on Nov. 15 to determine qualification for NCAA Championships.