Though this is the biggest meet of the season for the Penn women's cross-country team, the Quakers will remain with the same strategy that has given them a successful fall season so far.
The Red and Blue are "trying to do the same thing as all the other meets," senior Elaina Lord said about this weekend's Heptagonal Championships at Van Cortlandt Park in New York.
Heps marks the Ivy League Championships for cross-country.
Seniors Lord and Emily Logan lead the Quakers as two runners who have consistently been Penn's top two finishers.
This year, Princeton and ninth-ranked Columbia have dominated the Ivy League and according to Lord, will likely finish in the top two spots this weekend. However, she said it will be a "pretty close finish between all of the rest of the teams."
This will be a defining race for the seniors on the team and also a big race for freshman runners Emily Buzzell and Jennifer Blank, who have consistently finished right behind Lord and Logan.
Lord hopes that the 10 girls competing can turn in their best performances.
The Quakers took first place at the Delaware Invitational in its second meet of the season. Since then, the team placed sixth in both the Paul Short Run and the Penn State Open.
In its last two competitions, the Quakers faced top national programs such as Georgetown, Tennessee, Penn State and Villanova.
This weekend, however, is the one that counts.
Heps is "pretty much the meet we train for," Lord said.
The course should be familiar, as the Quakers last competed at Van Cortlandt Park on Sept. 13 at the Fordham Invitational. In the meet, Penn finished second to Columbia.
Indeed, the Quakers have had success at Van Cortlandt and hope to put forth a similar performance this weekend.
Lord added that the team will "definitely do better than [they] have in the past."
