PRINCETON, N.J. — The women's cross country team put together a solid performance on Saturday morning at the Ivy League Cross Country Heptagonal Championships at Princeton's West Windsor Fields to finish fifth overall with 133 points in the field of Ancient eight schools. Junior Erin McLaughlin finished in 11th place, earning her first career All-Ivy honor.

With the temperature hovering near 50 degrees and no rain in sight, the Big Red was ready to go from the gun against a tough field. All eight Ivy League squads have been in the national polls this year, with five entering the meet still in the national conversation.

Cornell sat in sixth place with 127 points through the first 1500 meters, with McLaughlin and classmate Jackie Katzman leading the Big Red pack at the split in 19th and 20th place, respectively.

By the 4,700 meter mark, No. 26 Harvard – who would go on to win the title with 33 points – had a commanding lead with all five scoring runners in the top 10 spots for 28 points, but Cornell had moved into fifth place with 119 points.

McLaughlin had moved up to 12th place overall, and Katzman, junior tri-captain Shannon Hugard, Gracie Todd and senior tri-captain Taylor Spillane were all within the top 30 spots.

McLaughlin passed another runner before the finish line to finish 11th overall with a time of 20:49.3, while Spillane closed fast to finish 26th overall in 21:15.3. Katzman was just two seconds behind Spillane in 21:17.2 to finish 27th overall. 

Hugard crossed the line in 31st place with a time of 21:19.5 and Todd closed out the Cornell scoring in 37th place in 21:28.4.

Sophomore Suzie Petryk ran 21:35.1 to finish in 43rd and classmate Briar Brumley ran 21:36.7 to cross the line in 47th.

McLaughlin improved 29 places from last year at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, N.Y. and took over 90 seconds off of her time from the last time she ran the West Windsor Fields at the 2014 Heps. Hugard also ran over a minute faster than her 2014 time.

There were several other nice performances from the Cornell women. Junior Jessica Elliott moved up 28 spots from the initial 1500 meter split to finish in 49th in 21:38.7. A pair of freshmen in Taylor Knibb and Audrey Huelskamp ran strong in their Cross Country Heps debuts, finishing in 58th (21:49.5) and 62nd (21:55.1), respectively. Sophomore Eve Glasergreen passed two runners after the 4700 meter split to finish in 81st in 22:24.5 and freshman Kyleigh Spearing crossed the line in 22:26.6 for 82nd place.     

Harvard's Courtney Smith dominated the field, traversing the course in 20:19.6 for the second fastest six kilometer in Heps championship history and was more than 10 seconds ahead of second place Ashley Montgomery of Penn.

Cornell's 133 points bested Princeton (137), Dartmouth (142) and Columbia (166). No. 21 Yale finished in second place with 69 points and No. 24 Penn finished in third with 77 points. Brown took fourth with 105 points.

Complete results, including intermediate splits and team scores at 1500 meters and 4700 meters can be found here.

Cornell will return to action in two weeks when it travels to Van Cortland Park for the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships on Friday, Nov. 11.