"This was a great year for the league," Hickey says. "Any of the top five teams could have finished in the top 20 on a lucky day. It was stacked."

While the Heptagonals were certainly a high point for the team, the indubitable peak of the season was an October 15 triangular with Princeton and Yale.

Both Princeton and Yale looked past the Crimson going into the meet.

"They sort of took us for granted," Hickey says. "They both beat us last year in the meet and I guess thought that it wouldn't be any problem doing it again."

And they were wrong.

Paced by the second-, third- and fourth-place finishes of Carswell, Walsh and freshman Killian Lonergan, respectively, Harvard blew out Yale, 18-40 (the lowest score wins), and then dismantled Princeton, 20-40.

"That was great," Lanzo said. "We beat them about as bad as you can beat another team in cross country."

Next came the Heptagonals and then a fifteenth place finish out of 30 teams at the ICAAAA championships at George Mason University, and the season was over.

But not forgotten.

"This season was an experience I will remember forever," Hickey says. "we were both one of the best teams Harvard has ever had, and one of the best groups of friends. And I don't think that those were mutually exclusive."