ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell track and field teams closed out the indoor portion of their track season with very good showings at the Eastern Championships in Boston on Saturday and Sunday as the men tied for third at the IC4A Championships and the women placed fifth at the ECAC Championships.  With over 80 Division I Eastern schools at these championships, the Big Red returned to Ithaca with 16 different scoring efforts and nearly 30 All-East performers.

The women had a solid start on Saturday, producing two NCAA provisional qualifiers.  Senior co-captain Stephanie Pancoast had a 17 second personal best to place fourth in the 5000 in an NCAA provisional qualifying 16:41.59, #6 all-time at Cornell.  Junior Kim Standridge bettered the NCAA provisional standard for the second straight week in the 800, winning her heat in 2:08.17 to easily advance to the final.  In addition, senior co-captain Jessica Weyman booked a ticket for Sunday with a 55.74 qualifier in the 400.  Also advancing to the final was the 4X800 of senior Lindsay Broyhill (2:15.5), junior Anna Scull (2:14.1), sophomore Janel Parker (2:19.6) and junior Alana Levy (2:18.1), as the quartet ran 9:07.37.

On Sunday, senior Natalie Gengel got the Big Red off to a good start with a fifth place 12-1 1/2 clearance in the pole vault.  First up on the track was the distance medley relay and the squad of senior Caroline Heidt (3:33.8 for 1200), sophomore Kelsey Reimnitz (58.1 for 400), senior Kerri Lyons (2:16.8 for 800) and senior Emma Clarke (a big PR of 4:56.1 for the 1600 leg) ran 11:45.09 for fifth, also the tenth best time in school history.  Weyman then placed sixth in the 400, placing second in her heat in the final, running a fine 55.36.  Standridge came back with yet another very good effort, running 2:09.03 to place fourth in a competitive 800 final.  Freshman Kelsey Karys continued her terrific season to place fourth in the 3000, lowering her own freshman record to produce the eighth best time in school history, 9:35.74, less than four seconds removed from the NCAA provisional standard.  Closing out the scoring for the Big Red was the 4X800, which placed a very good fourth in 9:01.37 as Broyhill (2:17.3), Scull (2:13.7), Parker (2:14.9) and Levy (2:15.4) ran well.

Overall, the women placed fifth with 31 points, the top Ivy team and behind only UConn, Seton Hall, George Mason and Rutgers.  The team had seven different scoring efforts, with 13 different women claiming All-East honors on the weekend.

Also competing for Cornell on the weekend was senior Kate Backel (12th, 56.96) and senior Megan Williams (15th, 57.24) in the 400, sophomore Melissa Hewitt (13th, 18-0 1/2) in the long jump, Lyons (11th, 2:54.41) in the 1000, junior Kim Lienhoop (14th, 38-4 3/4) in the triple jump, freshman Lindsey Patterson in the pole vault and the 4X400 of freshman Libby O'Brien, Reimnitz, freshman Mari Giurastante and sophomore Bry Bonavita, which ran 3:50.82 for 17th.  

Complete ECAC results are at:
http://www.coolrunning.com/results/10/ma/Mar7_ECACDi_set1.shtml

With the indoor portion of the 2010 track campaign at an end for Cornell, the Big Red turns its attention to the outdoor part of the schedule.  The annual spring break trip to California is up next as Cornell will compete at the UC Irvine Spring Break Invitational on Saturday, March 20 and then at the Cal State Fullerton Titan Twilight on Friday, March 26.