Cross Country Teams Lead Tigers’ Parade of Champions

As Princeton women’s cross country took the lead in the team standings more than halfway through the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships Nov. 2, coach Brad Hunt said he was calling out a simple message from the sidelines: “You belong! You belong up there!”

The Tigers, who had finished second to Harvard for three straight years, took the mantra to heart, placing four runners in the top eight and winning their first Ivy title since 2015.

Mena Scatchard ’25 led Princeton as the second runner across the line, while Anna McNatt ’27’s strong kick put her in third, 41 spots higher than her 2023 Heps finish. Lexi Allen ’25, who missed last year’s meet due to illness, placed seventh, and newcomer Meg Madison ’28 was three seconds behind her in eighth.

Princeton hosted the meet, the first major event on the new cross country course in the Meadows Neighborhood, south of Lake Carnegie. The men’s team, led by Myles Hogan ’26 (fifth) and Nicholas Bendtsen ’25 (eighth), won the Heps title as well, overtaking Harvard in the final 1,000 meters of the 8,000-meter race.

Also on Nov. 2, Princeton field hockey completed a 7-0 Ivy League championship season, defeating Yale 1-0 at Bedford Field. Olympian Beth Yeager ’26 scored the goal, her 15th of the season. Women’s soccer edged Columbia, 1-0, in New York to earn the Ivy regular season title for the first time since 2018.