NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- The Cornell track teams competed at the Outdoor Heps this weekend, hosted by Yale, and returned to Ithaca with second place team finishes on both the men's and women's sides. Despite facing adversity, both the men and the women competed with great heart and made the team standings very close in the meet's final events as the Princeton Tigers held on to victory.

The Cornell women overcame the loss of last year's meet MVP, junior Melissa Hewitt (who pulled her hamstring in the 100 preliminaries on day one) to claw back into the meet and finish only 19 points behind the Princeton women. But the absence of one of the team's stars was hardly an excuse as the women of Cornell stepped into those gaps and produced brilliant results. The quality of the Cornell performances across the board were remarkable with the Cornell women producing 34 ECAC qualifiers, 12 changes to the all-time top 10 lists in addition to a school record and two freshman school records, an event win and five second place finishes to score 113 points. Third place Brown had 101 as seven teams scored more than 70, demonstrating the increasing parity on the women's side of the Heps.

The Big Red women got on the board early with a sixth place finish from junior Kristin Brandt, who stepped up with her first career points in the long jump, reaching 19-0 3/4. Misfortune struck quickly, however, as junior Melissa Hewitt, who had begun with a solid start in the preliminary rounds of the long jump, crashed to the track in the first round of the 100 with a pulled hamstring. She did manage seventh in the long jump (19-0 1/2) but her loss for the rest of the meet was a tough one for her and her teammates. But the Big Red women rallied and stepped up and were not deterred, as the team qualified a meet-best 12 through to Sunday's finals. And the team managed to up-set pre-meet form charts in a big way with the finals that were contested on Day One.

The women's 10,000 meters on Saturday night proved to be a real momentum-builder for the Big Red heading into Sunday as sophomores Kelsey Karys and Katie Kellner worked in tandem to produce a stellar 1-2 finish for Cornell, masterfully executing their race plan. After a slow and tactical first two miles, the pair traded the lead for the next two miles as they applied heavy pressure to the rest of the field with faster and faster laps. With two-defending champion Sarah Cummings of Princeton hanging in and even re-taking the lead in the final 3000 meters, Karys unleashed a 5:07 final mile to pull away for her first career Heps title, crossing the line in a new school record of 34:19.99 (breaking the 19 year old mark of Martina Hoppe '94 by .01), also the fifth best time ever run at the Heps. Kellner rallied with great determination in the final three laps and finished second with a 95 second personal best of 34:37.92, #4 all time at Cornell. With a first 5K of 17:50, Karys managed a remarkable 16:29 5K to close out the race, while Kellner ran the last half of her race in 16:47. Also running an inspring effort was senior Kristin Sellers, who ran a personal best 36:05.07, #9 all-time at Cornell, to place seventh. The Big Red throwers also stepped up on Saturday as sophomore Brittany Dombrowski earned her sash with a fourth-place finish of 135-0 in the javelin and junior Erin Rossi (5th, 169-10) and senior Andrea Faldermeyer (6th, 154-3 in her first Heps!) scored valuable points as well.

The Big Red qualified a huge crew through to the Sunday's finals. Senior co-captain Mecha Santos led the way, advancing in the 100 (11.98) and 200 (25.12) while classmate and fellow captain Kim Standridge ran very well to advance in the 800 in 2:08.53. Also getting through were freshman Ebolutalese Airewele in the 200 (25.15), junior Kelsey Reimnitz in the 400 (55.90), freshman Lauren Lloyd in the 800 (2:10.02), junior Janel Parker (4:26.63) and sophomore Alyssa O'Connor (4:25.25) in the 1500, junior Dani Silas (14.07, #4 all-time) and senior Lauren Tanz (14.59) in the 100 hurdles and junior Molly Glantz (59.52) and freshman Ryan Woolley (62.06) in the 400 hurdles.

The Big Red continued to pile up points on Sunday. After Kellner ran a gritty 5000 to place seventh in a tactical race, crossing the line in 16:55.08, the 4X100 impressed with a third place finish of 46.74. In Hewitt's absence, this was the quartet of freshman Anjelique Parnell, Santos, Airewele and Silas first time together and they did a great job getting the stick around the track. Cornell began to make up ground on Princeton in the steeplechase as the trio of freshman Rachel Sorna, senior Maura Carroll and sophomore Genna Hartung all earned their sashes with a 3-4-5 finish. Sorna set a new freshman record of 10:36.16, Carroll ran 10:39.53 and Hartung crossed the line in 10:41.74 as they all moved up extremely well in the final two laps. Meanwhile, in the triple jump, Brandt continued her fine meet with a fifth place mark of 39-11 1/4 and senior co-captain Kim Lienhoop was fifth in 39-10 1/2, #7 all-time at Cornell. Despite dealing with an injured foot the last two months, Lienhoop then doubled back an hour later with a clutch sixth place high jump clearance of 5-7; sophomore Ailish Hanly also cleared 5-7 to get seventh. Back on the track, Parker set a new personal best to place fifth in a fast 1500 final, running 4:25.25; O'Connor was ninth in 4:36.68. Silas ran a good race to get fourth in the 100 hurdles at 14.10 (Tanz was eighth in 14.51) and then Reimnitz closed brilliantly in the final straightaway of the 400 to match her indoor Heps finish of third, running 55.88. Cornell also added a point in the heptathlon as junior Karen Schillinger scored a seasonal best 4,342 points for sixth.

Santos proved clutch as well in the 100, placing second in 11.96 and her fellow co-captain Standridge ran a great race to place second in the 800, running a seasonal best 2:07.37, tenth best in meet history.  Close behind was Lloyd, who ran a terrific race to tie the freshman record, placing fourth in 2:08.95. And then in the 400 hurdles, junior Molly Glantz ran very well to place second in 59.25, also the tenth best time in meet history. Woolley earned her sash with a seasonal best, sixth place effort of 61.89. Meanwhile, in the discus, senior Cassie Schweighofer placed fourth in 147-4 (sophomore Claire Dishong just missed scoring with a seventh place throw of 138-1) and then in the 200, Santos closed out her outstanding meet with a third place run of 24.67, #10 all-time at Cornell. After the 1500, Cornell had trailed Princeton by 52 points but heading into the meet's final three events, the Big Red had trimmed the deficit to just 13 points. In the 3000, Karys doubled back from her 10K triumph the night before with another remarkable effort, running her last 1600 meters in 5:00 to place sixth in a very close finish, running 9:53.37 as all six scorers placed within four seconds of one another. In the final two relays, the Big Red competed very well as the 4X800 placed second to Princeton in 8:43.35 as sophomore Alyssa O'Connor (2:09.6), Lloyd (2:13.2), Parker (2:10.1) and Standridge (2:10.3) ran 8:43.35, #4 all-time at Cornell and the second best time in meet history. And in the 4X400, the quartet of Woolley (58.1), Reimnitz (56.7), Airewele (54.9) and Glantz (55.3) ran 3:44.87 for fourth.

The Big Red also had solid performances from junior Bry Bonavita in the 800 (15th, 2:13.70), junior Tayor Baird in the 100 hurdles (9th, 14.71), freshman Zaakirah Daniels in the 100 hurdles (10th, 14.76), sophomore Becky Delong (10th, 18-2 1/2), Parnell (11th, 18-2 1/4) and sophomore Savannah Johnson (17th, 17-5 1/2) in the long jump, freshman Dale Kinney (12th, 10:08.63) and junior Meghan Brown (19th, 10:14.13) in the 3000, freshman Sarah Udelhofen (12th, 5-1 1/4) in the high jump, and Johnson (13th, 38-1 1/4) in the triple jump.

Complete results can be found here:
Women:
http://www.lancertiming.com/results/spring11/hepsw.htm

There is archived video of all the races on Flotrack:
http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/238720-2011-Ivy-League-Heptagonal-Heps-Outdoor-Track-and-Field-Championships

Next up for the Big Red is the ECAC Championships, which will be held at Princeton on May 13-15.  After that is the First Round of the NCAA Championships – the Eastern site is in Bloomington, IN on May 26-28.