Cross Country Races at Ivy League Heps

Saturday, October 28

Boston, Mass. (Franklin Park)

11 a.m.

Brown University

Ivy League Heps Championships

Photo by: Denise Depiero

10/28/2023 3:06:00 PM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country

Complete Results (TFRRS)2023 Brown XC Statistics

BOSTON, Mass. – For the first time in the history of Ivy League Heps, the league held its championship meet at Franklin Park in Boston on Saturday, where the Brown men and women's teams both took eight place.

The men's squad finished with 239 points and were led by junior Miles Mullins in 32nd place, while the women totaled 203 points and were led by freshman Olivia Fraga in 30th place. The men averaged 26:04 in the eight-kilometer race, while the women's finishers averaged 22:28 in their 6K.

On a warm day with the temperature hovering around 80 degrees, Princeton took home the men's team title with 40 points, edging out Harvard (43) and Cornell (97). The Harvard women captured the women's crown with 47 points, followed by Princeton in second (73) and Dartmouth (92) in third.

Mullins led the men's pack, finishing in 25:20.4. He was followed by senior Geordie Young (57th/26:02.2) and junior Sam Colton (60th/26:05.1), along with freshman Matthew Doherty (69th/26:25.4) and junior Tommy Gaffey (70th/26:28.3) to complete Brown's top five. Sophomore Jason Markopoulos and freshman Matt Wing completed the team's top seven.

"To come up a little short of what we wanted to was disappointing," head coach Collin Zeffer said. "But I was really proud of guys like Miles Mullins, who was patient and worked up through the race pretty well. Geordie Young had to do the same thing, and I was really happy with Sam Colton as well. I know they guys competed hard. We didn't have the day we wanted to on paper, but we'll move onto regionals. We have a great group of young guys, as well as some senior leaders, and we have a lot of passion on this team. It's just a matter of translating that to race day."

For the women, Fraga led the team in her first Heps with a 30th place finish in an even 22 minutes. Also competing in her first Heps, sophomore Nimrit Ahuja was second for Brown in 33rd place overall with a time of 22:01.5. Senior Stephanie Kriss (45th/22:30.1), junior Isolde McManus (57th/22:48.1) and junior Maxine Montoya (65th/23:00.5) completed the team's top five. Senior Katie Orchard and sophomore Julia Schriefer followed to round out the Bears' top seven. In a sign of progress, the top four Brown finishers on Saturday all finished ahead of the team's top returning spot from last year, with the top three all finishing ahead of the team's top finisher from the 2022 Heps.

"I thought we had a solid day," head coach John Kenworthy said. "It wasn't necessarily the most perfect result we could have dreamed of, but we had a few really good individual performances and the pack did a good job. I think the benefit of our team right now is we have a lot of energy. Overall, definitely solid but room to improve and a step forward form last year. We've been consistent on our end throughout the season which is always a good thing when you're trying to build something.

"We're really looking to make a dent in our 20th place finish at regionals last year," Kenworthy said. "Heps results don't always illustrate where progress is made, so we hope we can see some progress in the results at a bigger race with more teams."

Next up, Brown will compete at the NCAA Northeast Regionals at Van Cortland Park in NYC on Friday, November 10.

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