Komazawa University held a 30-second lead over Chuo University after the first day of the two-day Tokyo-Hakone collegiate ekiden road relay on Monday.
Five Komazawa runners covered the 107.5-kilometer course from Tokyo's Otemachi business district to the spa resort of Hakone in Kanagawa Prefecture in 5 hours, 23 minutes, 10 seconds.
Defending champion Aoyama Gakuin University was third and will start Tuesday's return trip a little more than 2 minutes after Komazawa.
Komazawa will try to become the fifth team in history to sweep the three collegiate ekiden titles after winning the Izumo ekiden in October and the national championship in November.
"I'm happy that my runners got their jobs done," Komazawa manager Hiroaki Oyagi said. "It was a neck-and-neck race. (Freshman and fifth-leg runner Takuma) Yamakawa says he is good at running on the mountainous leg. He ran well and met our expectations."
"I expect a tough return trip. We'll try to keep this momentum going tomorrow."
Chuo's Yamato Yoshii had the fastest time in the second leg, outracing highly touted runners such as Komazawa's Ren Tazawa, who competed in the 10,000 meters at the world athletics championships in Oregon in July.
Tokyo International University's Vincent Yegon pulled his team from 12th to fourth in the standings during the fourth leg by breaking the Tokyo-Hakone ekiden's record for a leg for the third time. The university finished the first day in seventh place.
Roadside spectators were allowed for the first time in three years despite the continued spread of coronavirus infections.