ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Big Red men's track team kicked off the indoor track season with the Cornell Relays on Saturday in Barton Hall, playing host to 17 schools and 8 club teams. The men had six event wins, eleven IC4A qualifiers, a school record, a freshman record and six alterations to the all-time top 10 lists to get off to a great start.
The Cornell men were strong throughout the season-opener and were led by junior
Nick Huber's school record in the heptathlon, a score of 5,370 points. After day one results of 7.22 in the 60 dash, 22-5 1/4 in the long jump, 41-6 in the shot put and 6-6 in the high jump, Huber came back with an impressive day two, running 8.27 in the 60 hurdles, 13-3 1/2 in the pole vault and 2:45.70 in the 1000 to produce the best heptathlon in nation in the early going of the season. Classmate
Josh Cusick was second in an IC4A-qualifying total of 4,928, #6 all-time at Cornell. Another big highlight for the men came in the 60 dash. The Big Red swept the top three places as freshmen
Chris Bain and
Kinsley Ojukwu both dipped under the old school freshman record, with Bain winning in 6.79 and Ojukwu right behind in 6.80; the duo moved to #2 and #3 all-time at Cornell. Sophomore Jedidiah Yiadom-Adarquah also bettered the IC4A standard in placing third in 6.89 to move up to #6 all-time. Junior
Bob Belden was terrific as well, setting a personal best 60-10 1/2 to win the weight throw, good enough for #10 all-time in school history. He also placed second in the shot put, reaching 53-11 1/4 to qualify for the IC4As in both events. There were several other very good showings in the field: senior
Enbani Moore won the long jump with an IC4A-qualifing leap of 23-6 1/4. He was joined as an Eastern qualifier by Ojukwu, who reached 46-11 3/4 in the triple jump to get fourth and by junior
Chris Arlinghaus, who cleared 6-8 1/4 to get second in the high jump. A quartet of juniors swept the 500:
Brian Freitas won in 1:05.48 and was followed closely by
Cody Boyd (65.90), Dan Thomas (66.48) and Steve Wexler (67.05). Freshman
Steven Bell impressed with a second place leap of 22-6 1/2 in the long jump, classmate
Justin McCollin was fourth in the 60 at 6.99 and seventh in the 300 at 35.61 and sophomore Rob Feidler threw well to place fifth in the weight throw in a PR 52-0. The men's 4X800 placed first in an IC4A-qualifying 7:47.47 while the men's 4X400 of Boyd (49.7), Freitas (49.7), senior
Chris Tait (51.2) and Thomas (49.9) ran 3:21.03 for second place.
A number of alumni returned to campus for this meet to join in the competition. There were several who placed in the top three in their events. 2008 NCAA Champion Muhammad Halim '08 added to his legendary performances at Cornell with a Barton Hall record in the triple jump, reaching a remarkable 54-9 1/2. Garrett Huyler '09 won the high jump in an impressive 7-0 1/4 while Ryan Schmidt '05 was third at 6-8 1/4. Erik Roneker '09 had a pair of thirds, reaching 53-5 3/4 in the shot put and 58-1 in the weight throw. Nate Jauvtis '99 was third in the pole vault, clearing 15-3.
Complete results can be found here:
Specific heptathlon results can be found here:
Final exams begin next week at Cornell. After winter break, the Big Red returns to action with the Southern Tier Collegiate Open at Barton Hall on Friday, January 7 and then will travel for the first time to the Penn State Nittany Lion Challenge on January 15.
