Ben True '08 made quite a statement in his final Heptagonals Championship on Friday in Van Cortlandt Park in New York City.
True set numerous records at the race, solidifying himself as one of the best Ivy League cross country runners of all time. He became the first Ivy Leaguer to win three individual conference titles in almost a quarter century. True won the Heps, the Ivy League championship, in 2005 and 2006 but did not run last season. Dartmouth's Jim Sapienza '85 was the last Ivy League runner to accomplish this feat, claiming the title in 1982, 1983 and 1984.
True, who finished with a time of 23:59 for the five-mile course, broke the Heps record by more than eight seconds. Brown's Chris Schille had previously set the course record in 1987 with a time of 24:08.
True's finish helped the Big Green men finish in fourth place out of eight teams, while the Dartmouth women came in seventh place. It was truly an orange and black Halloween, however, as both the Princeton men and women dominated their races for two first-place finishes.
True also finished the race almost 33 seconds ahead of the next finisher, last year's Heps champion, Michael Maag of Princeton. True's margin of victory was the largest at Heps since 1976, when the United States Military Academy's Curt Alitz was 37 seconds ahead of the field.
"The real story here is obviously Ben True," men's head coach Barry Harwick said. "The way he ran it, dominated it, set not only the Dartmouth record but the all-time course record ... It was a pretty phenomenal performance. We were all thrilled for him. He could not have done more for the team."
The Big Green men had three finishers among the top 20, but they were not enough to overtake champion Princeton, which won its third-straight Ivy League championship. Princeton finished with 58 points, followed by Columbia University and Cornell University. Dartmouth finished with 89 points, followed by Brown, Harvard, Yale and Penn.
Glenn Randall '09 was ninth in the race and second for the Big Green with a time of 24:53. Rounding out the top finishers for Big Green squad were Tom Robbins '11, Kevin Treadway '10 and Alex Hall '10.
On the women's side, Dartmouth finished seventh overall with 180 points. Princeton, ranked fourth in the nation coming into Heps, dominated the race, as Tiger runners took first, second, third, fifth and sixth place. Princeton finished with the best all-time team score in the event's history.
Columbia, Brown, Cornell, Harvard and Penn all finished ahead of Dartmouth.
Princeton junior Liz Costello repeated as individual champion, finishing the five-kilometer race in 16:59, the fastest time in Heps history. Like True, Costello also won by a comfortable margin of almost 35 seconds, the largest winning-margin in the history of the women's event.
"The Heptagonal Championships is always the most challenging race of the season for us," captain Caitlin Cunningham '09 said. "We were pretty happy with our performance because we improved one place from last year, but we fell short of sixth place by one point, which was disappointing."
The top run for the Big Green came from Cunningham, who finished in 25th place with a time of 18:30. Freshman stars Elizabeth Short '12 and Amy Schuman '12 were second and third for Dartmouth, with times of 18:45 and 18:53, respectively. Rouding out the top finishers for Dartmouth were Nichole Brown '11 and Aryn Gruneisen '09.
"The Ivy League is a very strong conference for women's running," Cunningham said. "[Our] team is pretty young, but we have made great strides over the past three years. At Heps, a couple of freshmen stepped up their performances and really helped us out."
The Big Green men and women will be back in action next weekend as they head to the U.S. Track and Field New England championships at Franklin Park in Boston on Sunday, Nov. 9. The following weekend, Dartmouth will head back to Van Cortlandt Park for NCAA Regionals.
