PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Cornell track and field teams participated in the 116th running of the Penn Relays this past week and came back to Ithaca with a number of stand-out performances. Competing amidst an event that had thousands of high school, college and post-collegiate athletes, the Big Red distinguished themselves on each day of the meet. The women earned two Penn Relays championship wheels, had ten ECAC qualifiers, four alterations to the all-time top 10 lists and a new freshman record. On the men's side, the Big Red had a pair of runner-up individual finishes, twelve IC4A qualifiers, five additions to the all-time 10 lists and a new freshman record. Footage of every race can be found at www.flotrack.org.
Things got off to a promising start on Tuesday as the Big Red men had five decathletes in the field. All finished in the top seven, with senior Josh Kirkpatrick placing second with a score of 6,836. Leading for much of the competition, Kirkpatrick ended up with the second best performance in school history and an IC4A qualifier. Junior
Alex Holcombe was third with 6,581 points, classmate
Josh Cusick was fifth with 6,114 points, fellow junior
Chris Ryan was sixth with 6,100 points and sophomore
Vince Formica was seventh with 6,072 points.
Thursday's schedule was largely devoted to women's events. One of the biggest highlights was the 4X400, and the Big Red won the Heptagonal race for the eighth time in nine years, running a seasonal best 3:41.43, #9 all-time as sophomore
Kelsey Reimnitz (56.7), senior
Megan Williams (55.9), senior Kate Backel (53.8) and senior Jess Weyman (54.8) all competed very well. The distance medley relay also raced and the quartet of sophomore
Janel Parker (3:39.8 for 1200), freshman
Libby O'Brien (56.7 for 400), senior
Lindsay Broyhill (2;19.1) and senior
Caroline Heidt (4:54.9) ran 11:50.85 to place 13th in the college race. Also competing well on Thursday were the Big Red pole vaulters. Senior
Natalie Gengel was eleventh in the Championship section, clearing the ECAC standard of 12-1 1/2. Earlier in the day, sophomore Sam Brady was 15th in the college section, clearing 12-0, #2 all-time at Cornell outdoors. Freshmen
Claire Dishong (11-6 1/4) and
Lindsey Patterson (11-0 1/4) also competed. In the college discus, junior Cassie Schweighofer did a nice job to get third, bettering the ECAC standard with a seasonal best 155-5. In the Eastern long jump, junior Kim LIenhoop (18-5), sophomore
Kristin Brandt (18-0 1/4) and sophomore
Melissa Hewitt (18- 1 3/4) all did well. Also competing was the 4X100, which ran an ECAC-qualifier of 47.07 as junior
Mecha Santos, sophomore
Melissa Hewitt, senior
Megan Williams and senior
Krystal Williams made up the team.
Thursday night provided great conditions for the distance events, and the Big Red had a number of standout performances. Junior
Adrien Dannemiller placed second in the Championship section of the steeple, running an IC4A-qualifying 8:56.24, his best this season by 18 seconds. In the women's 3000, freshmen
Kelsey Karys and
Genna Hartung both ran well to easily better the ECAC standard, with Karys breaking the freshman record of Laura Woeller '95 to place fourth in 9:43.34 and Hartung finishing 10th overall in a personal best 9:48.60. In the women's Olympic Development 5000, recent grad Toni-Lynn Salucci '07 placed a terrific second in a great effort, producing a 15 second personal best of 15:45.65, currently the 16th best time in the world and the fifth best by an American in 2010. She dipped under the USATF "A" standard to earn a spot in the USATF outdoor championships in Des Moines, IA this June. In the same race, freshman
Katie Kellner also had a personal best, running an ECAC-qualifying 17:06.09 to place thirteenth. And in the women's 3000 steeplechase, senior
Erin Roberts placed in the top ten for the third straight year, placing seventh in an ECAC-qualifying 10:43.06. Classmate
Stephanie Pancoast was fifteenth in 11:00.77 and junior
Maura Carroll ran 11:12.23. Back on the men's side, there were several IC4A qualifiers. Senior Nate Edelman (14:24.58) and freshman
Kevin Johnson (14:29.33) dipped under the Eastern standard in the 5000 while freshman
Bobby Micikas (30:34.95) and senior
Joel Frost-Tift (30:43.19) did the same in the 10K. Also competing were junior Drew Hart (14:37.93), freshman
Brett Kelly (14:54.29) and senior
Dale Taylor (15:00.34) in the 5K and senior
Brad Bogdan (32:56.15) in the 10K.
One of the chief highlights on Friday was the women's sprint medley relay, which finished second in the Championship of America. The quartet of Hewitt (200 leg), Santos (200 leg), Weyman (54.4 for 400) and junior Kim Standridge (2;09.1 for 800) did a great job to finish behind only the three-time defending champion LSU Tigers and earned a Penn Relays wheel as the top ECAC squad. Their time of 3:52.86 was #3 all-time in school history. Earlier in the day the shuttle hurdle relay of sophomore Dani Silas, junior
Lauren Tanz, sophomore
Taylor Baird and sophomore
Karen Schillinger also ran the third best time in school history, placing 8th (and second in their heat) in 59.51. In the Eastern women's triple jump, Brandt was eighth at 39-5 1/4 while Lienhoop was twelfth at 38-8 1/4.
Friday was also productive for the men. Senior
Duane Teixeira competed very well in the Championship long jump, leaping to the second best mark in his career, 25-4 3/4w, to place third overall. Leading the competition for most of the day, Teixeira ended up in third, finishing ahead of four indoor All-Americans and behind two competitors with great pedigrees and great efforts: only the NCAA indoor champ and a competitor with a 6.0 meters per second tail wind had longer jumps on the day. Another big highlight was sophomore
Bob Belden in the college shot put, as he placed third in 56-0 1/2, #5 all-time at Cornell. Belden came back to garner another IC4A qualifier in the discus, reaching 159-7; senior
Scott Jaffee threw 154-1. The distance medley relay had the sixth best time in school history to place thirteenth in the Championship of America section, crossing the line in 9:49.05. Senior
Owen Kimple (3:00.4 for 1200), junior
Chris Tait (a fine 47.4 for 400), freshman
Nick Wade (1:50.1 for 800) and senior
Charlie Hatch (4:11.1 for 1600) made up the team. In the shuttle hurdle relay, sophomore
Dan Hagberg, classmate
Nick Huber, senior
Ola Williams and junior
Sean Potter ran 60.01 to get fourth in their heat and seventh overall, the #3 performance in school history. In the sprint medley relay, sophomore
Chase Aaronson (200 leg), Williams (200 leg), freshman
Bruno Hortelano-Roig (49.5 for 400) and junior Tommy Roy (1:53.6 for 800) ran 3:28.30, #9 all-time at Cornell. In the Heps 4X400, the Big Red made a push for the win on the anchor but finished third in an exciting race as the quartet of senior
Marcel van Eeden (48.6), sophomore
Brian Freitas (47.3), sophomore Dan Thomas (49.1) and Huber (48.0) ran 3:13.15 to barely miss qualifying for the IC4A final on Saturday. Competing in the Eastern pole vault were seniors
Jason Inzana (8th, 15-5) and Rick Zamora (11th, 15-1). And in the Eastern high jump, sophomore
Chris Arlinghaus cleared 6-6 3/4 to get twelfth.
Saturday's final action saw a pair of very good 4X800s from the Cornell men and women and yet another competitive effort by the women's 4X400. Sophomore
Molly Glantz (2:14.0), senior
Kerri Lyons (2:10.8), Standridge (2:09.7) and junior
Anna Scull (2:13.1) all gave Cornell a good effort to help the team to a ninth-place finish in the Championship of America 4X800 with a run of 8:47.87, just four one-hundredths from the all-time top 10 list at Cornell. The men's 4X800 also impressed, as the team shattered the old school freshman record by 26 seconds, running 7:31.81, less than a second removed from the overall top 10 list at Cornell. Placing fifth in the college section, the team of
Andy Arnold (1;54.2), Will McFall (1:54.2), Wade (1:50.1) and
David McCuiston (1:53.1) did a great job in a good field. The last relay of the weekend for Cornell was the women's 4X400 in the ECAC final and the line-up of Reimnitz (56.6),
Megan Williams (56.0), Backel (54.9) and Weyman (54.9) ran their second best time of the season, crossing the line in 3:42.70 to finish up a successful weekend. Also competing for Cornell on Saturday was senior
Gary Jones, who eclipsed the IC4A standard with a mark of 48-6 1/4 to place fourth in the Eastern triple jump and senior
Damian Silverstrim, who threw 159-11 in the hammer.
Complete results can be found at:
http://pennrelaysonline.com/Results/schedule.aspx
And to be able to see ALL the great action from the weekend on the track, go to:
www.flotrack.org
Next up, Cornell hosts the Big Red Invitational on Sunday, April 25 and then the Cornell Invitational on Saturday, May 1
