Daniel-O’Donnell

The 2010s was a breakthrough decade for Columbia track and field. The decade saw improvements initiated to the program in the 1990s finally come to fruition, as the men’s and women’s team finished consistently better in the Ivy League than ever before.

On average, 5,687 fans attended each Columbia football game in 2018, 1,526 attended men’s basketball, and 785 attended women’s basketball. The average number of spectators at golf tournaments? Under 10, according to players.

After earning an at-large bid to compete at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, women’s cross country fared well on Saturday in Terre Haute, Indiana, taking home 27th place overall while producing two top-100 finishers.

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It is a common misconception that only the top five finishers from each team matter in a cross country meet. Even though the sixth runner breaks a potential tie and the rest of the finishers add points onto rivals’ scores, some coaches tend to focus primarily on their top racers, believing that they have a bigger impact on meet results.

The crowd began to close in on the runners even before the starting gun’s smoke had cleared the air. Its eagerness—and unabashed intensity—is emblematic of the importance of the Ivy League Heptagonal Cross Country Championships to the cross country community.