The Cornell men’s cross country team achieved a third-place finish at the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships, held Friday at Van Cortlandt Park in New York. This marks the fourth consecutive year that Cornell has placed in the top three at this event.
Cornell scored 92 points, finishing behind Princeton, which won with 32 points, and Harvard, which took second with 46 points. The result keeps Cornell among the leading programs in the Ivy League.
“For the men, it was a total team effort out there today,” said Alan B. ’53 and Elizabeth Heekin Harris Head Coach Mike Henderson. “They wanted to make sure that anyone who beat them earned it, and they didn’t give an inch the whole time.”
Sophomore Griffin Mandirola led Cornell by placing 10th overall with a time of 24:42.4 in his first appearance at Heps. Junior Aryan Abbaraju finished 14th (24:49.6), while junior Matthew O’Brien came in 17th (25:02.4). These performances formed a strong front for the team.
“Griffin Mandirola stepped up in a big way today,” said Assistant Coach Kayla Evans. “As a newcomer to the League, he ran with the poise and confidence of a veteran Heps racer to lead the scoring squad.”
Sophomore Peyton Shute (25:34.6) and senior Tyler Canaday (25:43.1) completed Cornell’s scoring five by placing 25th and 31st respectively.
“Matt O’Brien and Peyton Shute really stepped up to fill that gap we’d been having between our No. 3 and No. 5 runners this year, and that was all the difference,” Henderson said. “Griffin and Aryan both ran superb races, and Tyler fought through what was not his best day to make sure we locked up that top-three finish again.”
Cornell also saw solid performances from sophomore Douglas Antacky (26:01.6), freshman Griffin Cords (26:07.3), sophomore Colin Martens (26:12.3), seniors Kamran Murray (26:32.8) and Ryan Johnson (27:21.9), as well as juniors Adam Martinson (26:57.3) and Zach Leader (27:05.5).
“Overall, I can’t say enough good things about both teams today — their focus, energy and commitment to each other was on full display,” Henderson added. “This result was truly a full team effort.”
Final team scores showed Princeton first with 32 points, Harvard second with 46 points, followed by Cornell at third with 92 points.
Individual results for Cornell included Griffin Mandirola in tenth place; Aryan Abbaraju fourteenth; Matthew O’Brien seventeenth; Peyton Shute twenty-fifth; Tyler Canaday thirty-first; Douglas Antacky fiftieth; Griffin Cords fifty-second; Colin Martens fifty-sixth; Kamran Murray sixty-fifth; Adam Martinson seventy-second; Zach Leader seventy-fifth; Ryan Johnson eighty-second.
