Randon Wins Ivies With Historic Run

James Randon (photo by The Ivy League/Sideline Photos)

Oct 29, 2016

Team Places Fifth, Seven Athletes Earn Personal Bests
PRINCETON, N.J.—The Yale men's cross country team wrapped up the Ivy League portion of the 2016 cross country season with a strong showing at the Ivy League Championships on Saturday. Senior captain James Randon won the meet in what was arguably the strongest race of his collegiate cross country career thus far. It also marks another milestone for Randon, as he is now the first Yale male athlete to win the Ivy League Cross Country Championships since Jim Gibson did in 1989. The team also ran well, with four of the five scorers setting personal bests. The team placed fifth, with 118 points, just three points behind Dartmouth who finished fourth. Penn won the meet (38 pts.), while Princeton placed second (51 pts.) and Columbia rounded out the top three (81 pts.).
Randon won the meet and set a personal best of 23:47.5, averaging 4:47.2 minutes per mile. The race started tightly packed, with more than 50 athletes within five seconds of the leader after the first mile and 25 athletes within five seconds of the leader after the third mile. However, as the race strung out in the last two miles, Randon led the way, winning the race by about four seconds. With this finish, Randon earns first-team All-Ivy honors for the second year in a row with a time that is the seventh-fastest in Ivy League Championship history. This personal best and first-place finish demonstrate how Randon is looking strong heading into the important NCAA Northeast Regionals in two weeks, which will determine whether or not he earns a spot at the NCAA National Championships.
Two additional seniors raced in their final Ivy League Championships on Saturday. Andre Ivankovic raced extremely well, placing fourth on the team with a 13-second personal best. He finished 34^th overall (24:37.1). This is a 24-place improvement over Ivankovic's finish at the Ivy League Championships in 2015. Similarly, Spike Sievert also set a personal record in his last Ivy League Cross Country Championships. He placed ninth on the team and 67^th overall. His time of 25:16.7 is a personal best of two seconds.
In what was only the second cross country race of his collegiate career, sophomore Trevor Reinhart finished second on the team. He passed through the three-mile mark in 28^th place, but passed 12 competitors in the last two miles to finish 16^th overall. His time of 24:14.6 is a personal best of more than thirty seconds from his time at the Princeton Invite two weeks ago.
Freshman Allen Siegler set another personal best, continuing an impressive streak in which he has set a personal best in every race this season so far. His time of 24:33.1 is 12 seconds faster than his previous personal best set on this same course from two weeks ago. He placed third on the team and 31^st overall in his first Ivy League Championships.
Juniors Cameron Stanish, Ryan Brady, Hale Ross and Scott Meehan finished fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth for the Elis, respectively. Stanish led the group and finished close behind Ivankovic in 36^th place. He ran 34 seconds faster than he did at the Princeton Invite, finishing the eight-kilometer course in 24:39.3. Brady finished 51^st overall (25:00.4), while Ross took 55^th (25:07.0) to complete the Elis' top seven. Meehan finished close behind in 57^th place. He moved up more than 30 places after the first mile and set a personal best of more than a minute with his time of 25:10.1.
Junior Matt Chisholm and freshman Peter Ryan finished 10^th and 11^th on the team, respectively. They ran close together over most of the race and finished slightly more than three seconds apart. Chisholm finished 74^th (25:37.5), while Ryan placed 77^th overall (25:40.6). This time is a personal best of more than 30 seconds for Ryan. Freshman Armstrong Noonan was the final competitor for the Elis on Saturday. He placed 79^th (25:49.3).
Full results from this meet can be found here. The Elis will now be preparing for the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships, which help determine qualification to the NCAA National Championships.
Report by Joseph Battles '18, Yale Sports Publicity