Track & field open season at Metro Holiday Meet

Both the men's and women's track and field teams opened their seasons on Saturday as they competed in the Metro Holiday Meet at Ocean Breeze Park in Staten Island. Although the offseason was long, both teams came out of the gates in fine form and will hope to continue to do so for the rest of the season.

The men's team particularly impressed, capturing eight victories. Freshman Josh Billington impressed in his first career Princeton race, capturing the 200m title with a time of 21.71 seconds, just edging out sophomore Carrington Akosa. Billington, the Australian native, also managed to come fourth in the 60m race with a time of 6.93, which was 0.06 seconds behind runner-up Akosa. Akosa, who had an impressive freshman season, was very impressive once again, winning the 4x400 relay alongside senior Dan McCord, junior Ray Mennin and sophomore Josh Freeman. Sophomores James Burns and Spencer Long also had podium finishes, finishing 2nd and 3rd in the 60m hurdles, with Burns only 0.03 seconds behind the winner.

Not only did the Tigers perform well in the short-distance sprints, but their mid-distance performances were also impressive. Sophomore Josh Ingalls also managed to claim a victory as he placed first in the 500m event with a time of 1:03.98 and fellow sophomore Eric Schulz came first in the 800m event, with a time of 1:55.21. Sophomore Noah Kauppila came third in the mile race, and fellow sophomores Zach Albright and Rob Stone came in second and third, respectively, in the 3000m race. Kauppila and Schulz joined up with fellow sophomore Jared Lee and freshman Franklin Aririguzoh to win the 4x800 relay too.

The Tigers also managed to dominate the field events, winning the high jump, pole vault and shot put events, while placing in second in the weight throw and third in the triple jump. Junior Xavier Bledsoe captured the high jump title, with a height of 2.09m, beating out his runner-up, who failed in all three attempts to beat the 2.09m mark. Senior Adam Bragg also dominated his event, comfortably winning the pole vault event after clearing 5.10m. The Tigers were especially impressive in the shot put event, with junior Chris Cook comfortably winning the event by 1.23m, beating the 18.12m, beating out fellow Tiger and sophomore Mitchel Charles.

The women's team did not manage to win eight events, but also managed to greatly impress, winning four events. Most impressive was senior Cecilia Barowski, who managed to break a school record in the 1,000m event with a great time of 2:48.56, beating out the runner-up by seven seconds. The Tigers also managed to capture the 4x800 event, with the team beating out second-place Wagner by 40 seconds.

The Tigers also had a 1-2 finish in the triple jump, as freshman Kerri Davidson triumphed in her first career event, beating the 11.53m mark, followed by junior Alex Lanzafame, who came in second with a mark of 11.02m. Sophomore Kennedy O'Dell rounded out the victories for the Tigers as she came first in the weight throw, with a mark of 16.07m.

Both teams will return home to Jadwin Gymnasium as they host their first tournament of the season this Friday. The teams will host the New Year's Invitational, which will start at 4:00 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 11. This will be the last meet of the calendar year before both teams take the winter break and return to action in January.