The women’s cross country team, shown here in earlier action, placed fifth at the Ivy League Heptagonals Championships—its best finish in years—at Van Cortlandt Park in New York on Friday.

The best weather of the season for cross country was a harbinger of things to come, as the Crimson cross country teams turned in their best performances in years by placing fifth on both the men’s and women’s sides at the Ivy League Heptagonals Championships at Van Cortlandt Park in New York on Friday.

The men were paced by senior captain Brian Holmquest, who finished 14th in 25:15.1, good enough for All-Ivy honors for the second consecutive year. Despite the strong finish, Holmquest wasn’t satisfied with finishing outside the top 10.

“The start got out well, and I kind of established myself on the outside of the pack in top 10,” Holmquest said. “I probably let the race get away from me a little between the two and the three-mile marks...Looking back, I definitely would’ve wanted to be more aggressive in the middle part of the race.”

Freshman Dan Chenoweth finished shortly behind in 16th place with a time of 25:15.8, just shy of an All-Ivy distinction but the top finish by a freshman on the men’s side of the meet.

“He emerged as our second runner at arguably the biggest meet of the year,” coach Jason Saretsky said. “I was sort of hoping/pulling/expecting him to be there and he really came through in a big way.”

From that point, however, experience carried the day for the Harvard men. Senior Andrew Lipkin was 24th in 25:25.3, and classmate Chris Green was 31st in 25:33.0. Sophmore Chas Gillespie rounded out the scoring, based on the sum of each school’s top five finishes, for the Crimson by running 32nd in 25:34.8.

“I think on the men’s side experience always plays a role,” Saretsky said. “There’s just something about that meet, that it’s about really being smart at the beginning of the race and mixing it up with strategy.”

Princeton took the men’s title, scoring just 38 points. Tigers junior Michael Magg was the individual winner with a time of 24:37.9. Harvard’s 117 points were good enough for fifth place, the highest team finish by the men since 2001.

“From the historic perspective, looking back, it’s hard to even remember what it was like my first two years here,” Holmquest said of the vast improvement. “Coming up to fifth place, looking back at previous years, that would have been a great day. To me it wasn’t that satisfying because I think we left a little out there, and I think that speaks to how much the expectations have changed.”

For the women, the freshmen were the story of the day. All five scorers and the top six finishers for the Crimson were rookies, led by Jamie Olson, who finished 13th in 18:03.4. She was followed by Claire Richardson, who placed 19th in 18:12.9, while Eliza Ives finished 24th in 18:20.3. Renata Cummins was 32nd in 18:31.2 and Meghan Houser was 36th in 18:39.2 to complete Harvard’s top five.

“It’s a great group to work with,” Saretsky said of the freshmen. “They just have a fantastic attitude. They’re really taking their cues from the senior leadership about what the expectations are, what it takes to be successful.”

The women finished fifth in the team standings, their best finish since 1999.

Princeton won the event with 25 points, the third-lowest total in meet history, and Tigers sophomore Liz Costello was the top individual finisher in 17:14.4.

Both the men’s and women’s squads are hopeful that the race will serve as a springboard for the most critical race of the season, NCAA Regionals at Franklin Park on Nov. 10.

“If anything, Regionals favors us, being on our home course,” Saretsky said, “and you go out to a 10K [distance for the men’s race], so it’s even more important to have that experience.”

“For some reason, we always seem to run better at Regionals than we do at Heps,” Holmquest said. “I want to place better than we did last year.”

—Staff writer Brad Hinshelwood can be reached at bhinshel@fas.harvard.edu.