HANOVER, N.H. -- Sophomore
Melissa Hewitt won the 60m dash and the long jump, leading the Cornell women's track and field team to a third-place showing at the 2010 Outdoor Heptagonal Championships, hosted by Dartmouth.
Hewitt claimed the third consecutive 60m dash, posting a winning time of 7.53 to claim the victory. In the long jump, Hewitt jumped 20-1 on her first jump of the meet, setting the standard so high that none of the other competitors could surpass it, winning the title by five inches.
The other victory on the weekend was claimed by the Cornell 4x400m relay team of
Libby O'Brien,
Megan Williams, Kate Backel and
Jessica Weyman. The quartet completed the relay in 3:45.54, claiming the meet title for the ninth straight time.
For full results from the weekend's action, please click here:
http://hepstrack.com/2010-womens-indoor-heps-results/
HANOVER, N.H. -- It was an exciting final weekend in February as the Ivy schools met to contest the Indoor Heptagonal Championships, this time at Dartmouth's Leverone Fieldhouse in Hanover, NH. In front of a spirited crowd, both the Cornell men and women put together very good performances as the men finished second to a very strong Princeton team and the women placed third in a tightly contested team race, finishing behind Princeton and Columbia. Although it was the first time since 2001 at a track Heps that neither Cornell team claimed a team championship, the Cornell squads displayed very good strength and resolve across all of the events and had very good meets.
The women were led by the heroics of sophomore
Melissa Hewitt, who won two events and added a third place in another. She needed only one jump on Saturday to leap 20-1 (#2 all-time and only 1 centimeter from the NCAA provisional standard) and win the long jump. On Sunday, she came back to win the 60 in an impressive 7.53; teammate and senior
Krystal Williams was a close second in a PR 7.55 (#3 all-time) to earn All-Ivy honors. Hewitt closed out her amazing weekend with a third in the 200 in 24.87, winning her heat of the finals. The Big Red also claimed first in the final event of the meet, crossing the line first for the 9th straight time indoors (and 17th straight time at the indoor and outdoor Heps) in the 4X400 as freshman
Libby O'Brien (57.7), senior
Megan Williams (56.7), senior Kate Backel (56.3) and senior Jess Weyman (55.0) ran 3:45.54 to win. An unfortunate fall by Columbia in the third leg prevented a much-anticipated show-down between the top-seeded Columbia team and the Big Red but the two squads will have plenty of chances to run against each other outdoors. The Big Red had a number of other runner-up, All-Ivy showings. On Saturday, senior
Natalie Gengel came through with a second place vault of 12-5 1/2 (sophomore Sam Brady stepped up with a fifth-place 12-1 1/2, #3 all-time). On Saturday, Weyman missed the 400 school record of Katy Jay '03 by only .02 to place second in the 400, running 55.27, #2 all-time. Classmate Kate Backel stepped up to place fourth in 56.26, #9 all-time. Junior Kim Standridge stepped up with a second place run of 2:08.14 in the 800, an NCAA provisional qualifier and #5 all-time at Cornell; sophomore
Molly Glantz was terrific in placing fifth in 2:11.63. Standridge and Glantz came back to team up with senior
Lindsay Broyhill (2:16.7), junior
Anna Scull (2:13.1) as Glantz (2:11.9) and Standridge (2:11.5) ran 8:53.34, the #2 time in school history. to place second in the 4X800. The women tallied 31 ECAC qualifiers on the weekend and had nine alterations to the top-lists and boasted 20 different scoring performances as the team tallied 96 points, behind only Princeton (125) and Columbia (110). The Big Red finished closer to first-place Princeton than fourth place Harvard (61 points). Indeed, the Big Red rallied on Sunday's finals to take the lead after the 800 with 10 of 17 events completed but despite some great individual and relay efforts, couldn't quite match Princeton and Columbia's impressive fire-power down the stretch.
The women also had some very good efforts beyond the top-flight scoring performances already described. Beginning Saturday, the Big Red qualified a meet-best 15 through to the finals: Hewitt (7.58), Williams (7.59) and junior
Mecha Santos (7.78) in the 60, Hewitt (24.92), Weyman (25.25) and Santos (25.40) in the 200, Weyman (55.61), Backel (56.89) and
Megan Williams (57.01) in the 400, Standridge (2:11.31) and Glantz (2:11.63) in the 800, sophomore
Meghan Brown (4:59.82) and senior
Kerri Lyons (5:00.47) in the mile and sophomore Dani Silas (9.04) and senior
Lauren Tanz (9.05) in the 60 hurdles. There were also some near-misses in the scoring: senior
Stephanie Pancoast (7th, 16:49.18, an ECAC qualifier), freshman
Genna Hartung (8th, 17:07.50, an ECAC qualifier) and freshman
Katie Kellner (10th, 17:14.78, an ECAC qualifier) all ran well in the 5000 and freshman
Victoria Imbesi (7th, 43-6) and junior Cassie Schweighofer (8th, 42-8) did well in the shot put while sophomore
Karen Schillinger was 9th in a seasonal best 3,161 in the pentathlon.
And then Sunday produced some some terrific scoring efforts. In addition to those already mentioned, Santos was sixth in a PR 7.75 (#7 all-time) in the 60, Weyman placed sixth in 200 (25.25), with Santos close behind in 7th in 25.39, Lyons was fifth in the mile (4:57.39) and Brown was sixth in 4:58.03, freshman
Kelsey Karys earned her sash with a fine 9:43.79 for sixth in the 3000, Tanz was sixth in the 60 hurdles at 9.04, junior Kim Lienhoop reached 39-3 in the triple jump to get fourth (and produce the #8 mark in school history), and Schweighofer was sixth in the weight throw at 50-6 1/4. In addition, Pancoast (8th, 9:52.90, an ECAC qualifier) and Hartung (9th, 9:54.84, an ECAC qualifier) doubled back very well in the 3000, freshman
Ailish Hanly was tenth in the high jump at 5-4 1/2, sophomore
Kristin Brandt was seventh at 38-8 3/4 in the triple jump, freshman
Savannah Johnson had a seasonal best 38-2 3/4 to get 11th in the triple jump,
Megan Williams was 8th in 56.91 in the 400, Silas was 8th in the 60 hurdles at 9.09 and senior
Kristen Rhinehardt was 9th in the weight throw at 44-8 1/4.
Complete results can be found at:
http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/documents/hepswomen.htm
http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/documents/hepsmen.htm
Please check out the following terrific web-site for further details on the meet:
http://hepstrack.com/
Next up for the Big Red is the ECAC/IC4A Championships in Boston on March 6-7. The NCAA Championships will be held in Fayetteville, Arkansas on March 12-13. After that, the team heads West for the annual Spring Trip to California from March 19-28.
