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Harvard Cross Country opened with a bang in the Bronx, as the women captured first place in the Fordham Fiasco, and the men rested top runners but learned insights on an important technical course which they will see later on in the season. The race primarily served both teams as a preview of the race they will run during the all-important Ivy League Championship meet (Heps) later on in the season.

Nevertheless, the Crimson women captured the first four places in the race, en route to an incredible 22 points. This group of four included winner of the meet, junior Anna Juul, who finished with a speedy time of 18:14.36, beating her personal best in the 5k by over one minute.

The next three runners all crossed the line within three seconds of each other, forming a nice Havard pack at the front of the race. The second place finisher for the Crimson women was freshman Isabell Sagar, who in her first race in a Havard uniform, finished with a time of 18:45.91. Senior co-captain Gilian Meeks and junior Brooke Starn, runners who placed well for Harvard in the Ivy League Heps Tournament at the end of last season, rounded out the top four. The final scorer for the Crimson was junior Judy Pendergast who placed 12th.

Another bright spot for the women was a pair of first-years, Shaked Leibovitz and Eloise Freitag, who placed 18th and 19th respectively, showing strong results in their first races.

“The freshmen are all very dedicated and have great attributes when it comes to fully embracing the new, harder training that comes with college,” said Meeks about the incoming class. “The whole team sees great potential in the class, and most importantly the freshmen have shown already that they are fun, easygoing, and thoughtful team members.”

This dominant performance was without the Crimson’s top three runners from last year, Junior Lisa Tertsch, Junior Abbe Goldstein, and Senior Kathrine Gillespie, who placed 3rd, 6th, and 24th in Heps last year respectively. Despite this, the Harvard women took eight out of the top twenty spots in an eleven team meet, displaying the hard work this team put into offseason training, and the talent required to make a splash in the Ivy League this season.

“We all took a very low-key approach to the meet and basically treated it like a hard tempo run,” remarked Meeks on the race. “Our coach didn’t even let us wear racing spikes during the race.”

Along a similar line, the men ran without their top six runners from Heps last year, all of whom are returning this year. This group includes the winner of Heps last year, senior Kieran Tuntivate, and the third place finisher junior Hugo Milner.

However, the race was a chance for some veteran members of the team to shake off the rust from the offseason and prove themselves.

“In terms of summer training and preparation for the season, we have put in a lot of quality base work that will put us in a position to be at our fittest when it counts,” commented senior captain Charlie Davis on the offseason. “We are returning essentially our entire top seven from last season, so I’m really excited to see our training pay off.”

The highlight for the Crimson men was a seven place finish from junior Blake Everstien and a twelfth place finish from junior Micheal Alber, the seventh runner for Havard during last year's Heps championship. Davis, freshman Kyle Englander, and sophomore Caleb Moore topped out the scoring five for the Harvard squad, finishing with 117 points, good for 6th place.

Both teams rested their top performers in the first week of the season, as they attempt to stay ready for the big meets coming up near the end of the season.

“The meets we want to be at our best for are the Ivy League Championship meet, the Northeast regional meet, and the NCAA Championships,” remarked Davis on the team priorities. “The group of guys we have is very solid and motivated, so we’ll be ready to make a statement at Heps.”

In preparation for more high stakes races, the Harvard Cross Country team will take on their rival Yale in a dual meet this Friday. The meet will be the debut performance for many of the both teams’ top runners and will set the tone for how the season will go. Harvard and Yale last met for a dual meet in 2013 and Havard will look to continue their season with a strong performance to start the weekend.