Yale Athletics

This past weekend, Yale men’s and women’s cross country teams had arguably their most anticipated meet of the season in Boston at the Ivy League Heptagonal Cross Country Championships, also known as Heps.

Both the men’s and women’s teams had strong regular seasons with deep rosters led by upperclassmen and filled out by first years and sophomores. Both teams’ roasters looked similar this past weekend at Heps.

The men’s team finished fourth out of eight teams with all four classes represented among their five placing runners. The women’s team finished sixth, led by senior captain Kyra Pretre ’24 and rounded out by four sophomores, with a first-year runner following close behind as the sixth. Only the top five runners are accounted for in calculating a team’s finish. 

“Heps was the culmination of our Ivy League Season,” men’s team captain Sean Kay ’24 wrote to the News. “Our team thus far has made great strides from where we were a year ago and I’m happy I was able to be a part of it. Every year I have been here we have placed higher in the league, and I can’t wait to see what the team does next year. Although we could have always done better, seeing the progress in a great realization of the work we have put in.”

In the men’s 8k the team was led by two familiar faces at the front of the Bulldog pack, Owen Karas ’26 and Kay. Karas led the Bulldogs with a 24:31 finish, giving him a 15th overall finish, and Kay came in not far behind at 24:38, placing him 18th. 

For Karas, it was a solid improvement on his finish last year at Heps, shaving off 40 seconds and 12 places from his first-year finish. Leo Brewer ’25, Daegan Cutter ’27 and Winslow Atkeson ’25 rounded out the rest of the pack, all finishing within nine seconds of each other. Their respective times were 24:55, 25:02, and 25:04, placing them 23rd, 25th and 26th.

Men’s head coach Matt Gutridge was pleased with his team’s result, explaining that it was one of the team’s best finishes in decades. He also explained that another of the Bulldogs’ typical scorers Varun Oberai ’25 unfortunately lost his shoe early in the race, setting him back.

“Our standing goal is to be in the top half of the league every year, so we accomplished that with our 4th place finish,” Gutridge wrote to the News. “Overall, the group ran well; we lost one of our typical scorers early in the race because Varun’s shoe was stepped on and came off, so the rest of the group stepped up. This was only the 10th time Yale has finished in the top 4 since 1970 and the 4th time since 1997. These guys have been consistent in the way they have performed all year and I believe they will be stronger over the 10k next week.”

In the women’s 6k, the team was led by team captain Kyra Pretre who notched an 18th place finish with a time of 21:41, improving on her junior season finish by a remarkable 39 places and 68 seconds. Marisa Poe ’26 led the rest of the team with a 21:55 25th place finish, followed closely by Linde Fonville ’26 in 26th place with a 21:58 finish. For both runners, these were over 60-second improvements on their first-year finishes. Charlotte Whitehurst ’26 and Claire Archer ’26 rounded off the scoring for the Bulldogs with times of 22:05 and 22:16, respectively, earning them 34th and 39th place. Hebe Chadwick ’27 was the first non-scoring Bulldog to cross the mark, finishing just 17 seconds behind Archer at 22:33, earning her 47th place.

Women’s head coach Taryn Sheehan was pleased with her team’s performance and depth in a hard-earned effort.

“The women did a great job of coming together as a team and executing a solid performance,” Sheehan wrote to the News. “Kyra did a great job of leading the team and had her highest performance at an Ivy League cross country championship. Our spread from 1-5 was 35 seconds which is the best we have had in three years and shows the depth this very young group has worked hard to close. I feel confident that they still have their best performances ahead of them at the Regional Championships next week.”

This year, the men’s and women’s teams look to build on last year’s finishes of fifth place and sixth place, respectively. 

The Bulldogs race next at the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships in the Bronx, NY, on Friday, Nov. 10. Their performances in this race will dictate whether they will compete once more at the National Championships in Charlottesville, VA.