Full Results
PRINCETON, N.J. -- The Cornell track teams had a tremendously successful weekend at Princeton, as both the men and women claimed the Outdoor Heps team titles, the men for the eighth straight year outdoors and the women for the eighth time in nine years outdoors.
The Outdoor Heps was, as always, very exciting and, despite severe wind gusts (in some cases topping out near 40 miles per hour both days and strong enough to knock over finish line cameras on Saturday), the quality of the performances across the League were outstanding. In the end, both the Cornell men and women proved yet again to be complete track and field teams, excelling across the board in all the event disciplines as the men and women came out on top together for the seventh time in eight years outdoors.
The men scored in 20 of 22 events and the women placed in 19 of 23 events, easily the best in the League on both accounts. The men produced 32 scoring performances to tally 188 points and out-distance the indoor champion Princeton Tigers by 36 while the women had 30 scoring performances to score 146.5 points, ahead of an impressive Brown team (132), Columbia (129) and the indoor champions from Princeton (125.5) in a spirited four-way battle for the women's title. The women had four event wins and four second place finishes while the Cornell men had eight first-place finishes and six second place showings. To put things in historical perspective, the men's championship was their eighth straight outdoors, the first time that feat has ever been accomplished in League history (surpassing the Penn men of the 1970s and the Cornell women of this past decade, each of whom won seven straight outdoors) and the Big Red men have now won 13 of the past 16 track Heps titles, counting indoor and outdoor. For the women, this was their eighth outdoor title in nine years but also the ninth straight year they've captured an indoor or an outdoor Heps crown, also the longest such streak in League history. The women of Cornell have now won 15 of the past 18 indoor and outdoor Heps team titles.
At the 2010 outdoor meet, each Cornell team was led by Meet Most Valuable Performers. On the men's side, senior co-captain Josh Kirkpatrick was honored by League coaches after winning the open long jump and the decathlon and leading off the first-place 4X100 relay team which ran the third best time in meet history. For the women, sophomore
Melissa Hewitt shared Meet Most Valuable Performer honors with Columbia double hurdle champion Kyra Caldwell. Hewitt's meet was historic: she set a meet (and school) record in winning the 100, also won the long jump (#2 all-time at Cornell and sixth best in meet history), ran a key leg on the winning 4X100 (which ran the second best time in meet history) and set a school record in placing second in the 200.
It is impossible to quantify performances put forth in winning a meet like the Heps, where team points and fighting for place are the main focus of the day. But despite challenging weather conditions, the number of qualify marks for the Cornell teams was indeed impressive, even as athletes were competing in multiple events and looking for team points. The women produced 35 ECAC qualifying performances and 17 alterations to the school all-time top 10 lists, two school records and a freshman record while the men boasted 35 IC4A qualifiers and six changes to the school all-time top 10 lists as well as a freshman record.
The women got off to a great start early as sophomore
Melissa Hewitt proved clutch in winning the long jump by 1 centimeter, reaching 20-0 1/2, #2 all-time at Cornell and the sixth best in meet history. Junior Kim Lienhoop also performed well, garnering sixth with a leap of 19-2 3/4. Later, senior
Natalie Gengel added eight important points to the Big Red's ledger, clearing 12-1 1/2 in the pole vault. A pair of freshmen also scored as Lindsay Patterson was fifth at 11-7 3/4 and
Claire Dishong tied for sixth at the same height. And in a remarkable ten minute span at the end of Day One, Cornell picked up fourteen more points from another pair of freshman. After leading in the early goings of the javelin competition,
Victoria Imbesi was passed in the fourth round, and she responded in a great way on her final throw of the day, reaching 144-10 to win by four feet! Just as Imbesi was surging to the lead in the javelin, freshman
Katie Kellner was making an inspired charge in the latter stages of the 10K. In seventh with 2000 meters to go, Kellner rallied for fourth, timing her kick very well, as she closed with a 77 final 400 to run 36:12.68, #7 all-time at Cornell and a new freshman record by over 45 seconds, surpassing the old mark of Emily McCabe '06 in just her first attempt at the distance. These 35.5 points put Cornell only six behind pre-meet favorite Princeton and with a meet-best 16 qualifiers for Sunday's finals, the table was set for a great run to the championship.
Qualifiers through to Sunday's finals were sophomore
Melissa Hewitt (11.66, a new meet and school record), senior
Krystal Williams (11.84, #3 all-time) and junior
Mecha Santos (12.24) in the 100, Hewitt (23.86, a new school record), senior Kate Backel (24.58w, #8 all-time) and Santos (25.09) in the 200, Backel (54.80, #4 all-time) and senior
Megan Williams (55.37, #8 all-time) in the 400, juniors Kim Standridge (2:09.02) and
Anna Scull (2:12.25) in the 800), senior
Kerri Lyons (4:32.44) in the 1500, sophomores Dani Silas (14.25, #5 all-time) and
Taylor Baird (14.57) in the 100 hurdles, and senior Jess Weyman (59.25), sophomore
Molly Glantz (61.65) and freshman
Mari Giurastante (63.33) in the 400 hurdles. Also performing well was senior
Caroline Heidt who just missed the final in the 1500 with an eleventh place seasonal best of 4:36.61, senior
Lindsay Broyhill in the 800 (2:13.97) and junior
Kristin Sellers who ran 37:25.60 for tenth in a windy 10K.
Sunday got off to a very good start for Cornell as the Big Red came up scoring across the board. After a slow first mile, freshman
Kelsey Karys took control of the pacing duties and ran a great race in the 5K, placing fifth in a fine 16:51.17, running her last mile in 5:15. Classmates Kellner (8th, 17:28.54) and
Genna Hartung (10th, 17:35.12) were also in the top 10. Up next, the 4X100 sprinted to victory for the ninth straight year, running 45.86 as Santos, Hewitt,
Megan Williams and Backel ran the second best time ever at the Heps. And in the 3000 steeplechase, the Big Red upset pre-meet form charts with eight points as senior
Erin Roberts ran a gutsy 10:29.85 (#3 all-time) for third place (becoming only the second person in League history to score all four years in the women's steeplechase) and classmate Steph Pancoast ran a great race as well to get fifth in 10:32.63, rounding into form at the right time after suffering a back injury in March. Junior
Maura Carroll PRed to run 10:49.26, #7 all-time, for ninth. In the 1500, junior
Kerri Lyons continued her great senior year with a third place run of 4:33.28 and then the sophomore hurdling duo of Silas (4th, 14.56) and Baird (5th, 14.64) added six more points in the 100 hurdles. With Backel placing third in the 400 at 55.07 (
Megan Williams was seventh in 56.99) Cornell, Brown and Princeton were separated by single digits in the scoring column.
As with the men, it was in the 100 that the Cornell women took the lead for the first time as Hewitt ran a great race to beat Columbia's Sharay Hale by .01, crossing the line in 11.72.
Krystal Williams stepped up big to get fourth in 11.99 and Santos came through with a sixth place 12.11 as Cornell added 15 points to its total. Good things continued as ten more points were added in the 800: junior Kim Standridge ran the eighth best time in school history, 2:08.50, to place second and
Anna Scull came through with a fourth place 2:11.59, a personal best.
Great things were also happening in the field. Sophomore
Kristin Brandt triple jumped 40-2, #6 all-time at Cornell for a great third place finish. And classmate
Karen Schillinger had a great two days in the heptathlon, finishing up third with 4,531 points, #6 all-time at Cornell. In only her second multi-event, sophomore
Kelsey Reimnitz was seventh with 4,294 points, #10 all-time. In the 400 hurdles, Weyman ran a huge personal best of 59.02 to place third in one of the most competitive women's 400 hurdle finals in meet history and Glantz set a new PR of 60.38 for fifth. Giurastante ran well to get seventh at 62.37. In the 200, Hewitt closed out her great weekend with a second place 24.10 while Backel ran 24.62 for fourth, with Santos seventh in a PR 24.78w. Karys doubled back with another great effort, finishing seventh in the 3K in 10:00.36 and the discus duo of junior Cassie Schweighofer (4th, 141-2) and Dishong (5th, 140-7) added six more points. Earlier, Schweighofer placed seventh in the shot put 42-9 3/4.
In the relays, the 4X800 of Glantz (2:14.5), Scull (2:19.8), Lyons (2:14.4) and Standridge (2:15.7) ran 9:04.28 for fifth. Entering the 4X400, the Cornell women had an 8.5 point lead over Brown but needed a solid effort in the final event to secure the team title. They got that effort and more as the quartet of Reimnitz (56.6),
Megan Williams (54.6), Backel (54.2) and Weyman (54.6) ran 3:40.37, #6 all-time at Cornell and the fourth best ever at the Heps as the squad placed second to an inspired Columbia team, which set a meet record to finish ahead of the Big Red.
For the men, their journey to an historic eighth straight outdoor Championships started with great showings on Saturday. Despite being in the midst of the decathlon, Kirkpatrick came up huge in the open long jump, soaring to victory in 24-9. After fellow senior co-captain (and indoor meet MVP) Duane Teixeira pulled his hamstring, Kirkpatrick was able to step up in a big way in garnering 10 team points. Teixeira was still able to produce a fine third place effort of 24-1 3/4 and hopes to be healthy for the rest of the championship portion of the season. Also scoring was sophomore Chase Aaronson, who leapt 23-6 3/4 to get fifth as the Big Red put up 18 points early. In the vault, the senior tandem of Rick Zamora and Jason Inzana produced 12 important points as each cleared 16-0 3/4, with Zamora second and Inzana fifth. In the 10K, junior Adrien Dannemiller impressed in his first-ever track 10K, running 30:05.12 to get fourth; classmate Nate Edelman, only recently recovered from mono, placed sixth in 30:10.74 with junior Drew Hart also running well to get seventh in 30:20.09. These 35 Day One points put Cornell up by two over host Princeton; but it was the slew of qualifiers that really put Cornell in great position for Sunday's final.
Saturday qualifiers were freshman Bruno Hortelano-Roig (10.70) and Aaronson (10.71) in the 100, Hortelano-Roig (21.06w, #6 all-time and a freshman record), sophomore Cody Boyd (21.43) and junior Chris Tait (21.61) in the 200, senior Marcel van Eeden (47.50) and sophomore Dan Thomas (48.26) in the 400, freshman Nick Wade (1:51.87) in the 800, seniors Owen Kimple (3:52.21) and Charlie Hatch (3:52.60) in the 1500, and sophomores Nick Huber (14.75) and Dan Hagberg (14.96) in the 110 hurdles, sophomore Brian Freitas (53.57), Huber (53.68) and senior Mike Kippins (54.04) in the 400 hurdles. Also making the finals on Saturday was freshman Rob Feidler, who placed eighth in the hammer at 173-1.
The tone was set early on Sunday for a big Cornell day. In the very first track event, the men's 4X100 blazed to victory as Kirkpatrick, Tait, Aaronson and Hortelano-Roig teamed up for an incredible 40.65, #3 all-time at Cornell and in Heps meet history (only the legendary Cornell teams from 1978 and 1977 have run faster at the Heps). Up next, Dannemiller doubled back from the 10K the night before with a gutty second place run in the 3000 steeplechase, running 9:00.93, a great time in the windy conditions. In the 1500, Kimple kicked well off a slow early pace to place fifth in 3:58.65 with Hatch seventh in 3:59.10. Next up, in the 110 hurdles, came a bizarre snafu by the grounds crew which led to an unprecedented feat by Nick Huber: he was able to win the same event twice on the same day at the Heps. With the hurdles set up incorrectly, Huber ran to victory, but with many runners crashing to the ground due to the incorrect hurdle placings, the race was re-run 10 minutes later. Not to be denied, he claimed first again, this time running 14.86; classmate Hagberg impressed as well after the short recovery, taking third in 14.96. Van Eeden powered his way to an important second place finish in the 400, running 48.18, while Thomas finished well to get fifth in 48.78 as Cornell picked up ten more points. And it was in the 100 that points started to really roll in for Cornell as Hortelano-Roig placed first in 10.64 (#9 all-time at Cornell) and was backed up by teammate Aaronson, who was second in 10.66 as 18 more points were added to the Cornell ledger. Wade placed fifth in a good 800 field, running 1:51.04 and then Huber (2nd, 52.63) and Freitas (4th, 52.99) picked up 12 more points for a Cornell team that was on a big roll. Huber ran the 400 hurdles while taking a break from the high jump, where he placed sixth at 6-5; fellow sophomore Chris Arlinghaus was fourth at 6-6 3/4.
Also helping the Big Red cause in the middle of the afternoon was sophomore Bob Belden, who threw well again to get second at 56-6 3/4. Earlier, he placed sixth in the discus at 160-8, just behind senior Scott Jaffee who was fifth at 161-6. In the 200, freshman Hortelano-Roig captured his second individual title of the meet, rolling to victory in 21.54; Boyd followed in fourth in 21.84 with Tait just out of the scoring at 22.15 for seventh. In the 5K, the last individual event on the track, a pair of Cornell freshmen impressed as Kevin Johnson earned his sash with a sixth place run of 14:30.60 while Bobby Micikas was seventh at 14:31.97.
Just after the 5000 concluded, senior Josh Kirkpatrick closed out his phenomenal Heps with the decathlon 1500, cruising to first place overall with a personal best score of 6,901 points, #2 all-time at Cornell. He was not the only scorer for Cornell, however, as junior Alex Holcombe battled through injury to place third with 6311 points and sophomore Vince Formica grabbed fourth at 6284 (#10 all-time at Cornell) and sophomore Josh Cusick was fifth at 6247. And in the final individual field event of the day, senior Gary Jones claimed his first Heps title, producing the third best triple jump in school history, reaching 52-0w.
With just the relays left, the Big Red closed out the meet with a fifth in the first-ever men's 4X800 at the Heps, as junior Tommy Roy (1:55.3), Kimple (1:57.1), Wade (1:52.9) and freshman David McCuiston (1:52.2) ran 7:38.26. And in the 4X400, Cornell placed first in impressive fashion as van Eeden (47.6), Tait (48.6), Freitas (47.7) and Thomas (48.8) teamed up to run 3:12.71 to conclude the meet in style.
The women's meet was incredibly exciting and competitive as four teams entered Sunday with very realistic chances of winning the team title and in the end, the team title was up in the air until the final event of the day and all four teams scored within 21 points of each other. But it was the outstanding team effort by the Cornell women that put the Big Red over the top, a team effort that was impressive on both days.
The Cornell teams were cheered by a vocal and energetic group of supporters who helped the Big Red put together tremendous efforts over the course of the two days.
Check out the following web-sites for great results, recaps, race video and pictures:
For great overall coverage:
http://hepstrack.com
Meet Results
http://www.flashresults.com/2010_Meets/outdoor/heps/
For race videos:
http://www.fauxtrack.com/heps
For race photos: http://public.fotki.com/PineTree123/2010-albums/2010-ivy-league-hep/2010-05-07--08-outd/
Next up for Cornell track is the ECAC/IC4A Championships, which will also be held at Princeton, this Friday through Sunday, May 14th-16th.
