Facing difficult conditions, runners from the Dartmouth men's cross country team raced to disappointing results at the 20th Annual Mayor's Cup at Franklin Park in Boston, Mass., over the weekend, finishing eighth out of 11 teams.
Adam Doherty '13, the top finisher for the Big Green, posted a time of 26:10 in the eight-kilometer race.
This was the Big Green's second time racing at Franklin Park this season, after first racing at the site two weeks ago for the New England Championships, held on Oct. 10.
In that race, the team finished an impressive ninth out of 47 teams.
This time around, the course was muddy and proved to be an obstacle.
"The meet didn't go as well as we had hoped," Ethan Shaw '12 said. "Some of our runners didn't run as well as they had earlier in the year at Franklin Park."
Several members of the team did not participate in the race in an effort to keep their legs fresh for this Friday's Ivy League Heptagonal Championships at Van Cortlandt Park in New York, N.Y.
The Ivy League Heptagonal race, which is a five-kilometer race for women and five-mile race for men, has traditionally provided tough competition for the Big Green.
Last year, despite a strong Dartmouth showing that led to a fourth-place finish, Princeton walked away with a win in both the men and women's races.
Still, there were distinct highlights for the Big Green at last year's race: All-American Ben True '08, who graduated last year, was the individual winner in the men's race with a record-setting time of 23:59.6, nearly 10 seconds faster than the previous record of 24:08.1 set by Brown's Chris Schille in 1987.
True was the first runner in the Ivy Leaguer to win three conference titles in 24 years.
Last year's top four teams all graduated two of their top five runners.
This year, Dartmouth will look to the power duo of Chris Zablocki '10 and Tom Robbins '11 to place in the top, Brad Kenimer '12 told The Dartmouth.
"The team goal is to get two guys, Zablocki and Robbins, ahead of Columbia's top runner and get three guys in before their fifth," he said.
Last year, Robbins came in 19th with a time of 25:19, followed by Kevin Treadaway '10 in 27th at 25:33, and Alex Hall '10 in 33rd at 25:42.
Zablocki, meanwhile, gained 41st place with a time of 25:49.
The Dartmouth women, meanwhile, will look to improve on last year's seventh-place finish in the wake of the loss of top runners Caitlin Cunningham '09 and Aryn Gruneisen '09.
Of the 12 girls who will be running in this weekend's Heps, four are freshmen.
Despite its relative youth, however, the team believes that it will be able to achieve this goal, April O'Brien '13.
"We have a deep team, the same person doesn't always win," O'Brien said.
Top runners for the women will include Lizzie Short '12, co-captain Ali Smrcina '10, Amy Schuman '12 and Laura Tabor '10.
"Our team is looking really strong this year," Melanie Wilcox '13 said. "We're looking to place between fourth and sixth place."
The men's cross country Heptagonal Championships have been a staple of the Ancient Eight since 1939. The women's championship was added in 1977, according to IvyLeagueSports.com.
The Big Green men's team won the Ivy League cross country championships every year from 1981 to 1984.
Both teams will look to carry on that storied tradition this Friday, with women's competition beginning at 11:15 a.m. and men's competition commencing at 12:15 p.m.
