The women’s track and field team will look to extend its indoor season success as it begins its outdoor season next month.
The team has been particularly hungry this year, having already won two titles and broken several records. It all started with the fall cross country team, which took first place at the 2015 Ivy League Heptagonal Championship in October. Junior Lizzie Bird won the individual title at that race and has continued to be a strong force on the track team.
Senior Cecilia Barowski, who has had a record-setting indoor season, will be a runner to watch outdoors. On February 12, she set a school record in the 400m, finishing her lap in 54.39. Back in December, she set a Princeton record in the 1,000m by clocking 2:48.56. Between setting both records, Barowski grabbed victories in several different events, including the 600m and 500m. Last month at the Harvard-Princeton-Yale meet, Barowski won the 800m at 2:05.85. Her time was just over two seconds away from the Olympic Trials qualifying time of 2.03. Barowski will surely seek to meet that time in the coming months.
Overall, the Orange and Black have a formidable group of upperclass women. Bird recently won the 3,000 Invitational at the Fasttrack National Invitational at Staten Island and should continue to round up points in the distance events. Junior Ally Markovich is another strong long-distance runner who finished third in the 3,000m at the Sykes & Sabock meet on February 6. Senior Meghan McMullin, a hurdles veteran, has also put up strong performances. She won the 500m at the HYP meet.
On the field side, senior Brielle Rowe has made an impact on throwing events. Recently, she won the weight throw at the Tiger Open and won again at the HYP with a PR of 16.55. Her younger teammate, sophomore Kennedy O’Dell, is an asset on the field team, as well. O’Dell won the shot put and the weight throw at the first meet of the indoor season, the Metro Holiday Meet in December, and has since performed well in her throwing events.
Another record-setter on the Princeton track and field team is junior pole-vaulter and hurdler Allison Harris. Earlier this month at Sykes & Sabock, Harris set the Ivy League record in the pole vault by clearing 4.20. Senior Taylor Morgan will no doubt be another asset on the field. At the HYP meet, she won the high jump and long jump and finished second in the shot put. Most notably, she set a Princeton record in the pentathlon with 4,050 points at Sykes & Sabock.
Other key athletes include sophomore runner Melinda Renuart, who won the 3,000m at Sykes & Sabock with a PR of 9:37.62. The freshman squad also offers a host of strong athletes, including sprinter Carly Bonnet, and distance runners Allie Klimkiewicz and Brighid Leach. Leach put up an impressive performance when she won the 3,000m at the Tri-Meet Invite in January.
While these athletes have proven the strength of the track and field team indoors, there is reason to expect even more from the outdoor season because the team will gain a key runner who could not compete in the indoor season: senior Emily de La Bruyère. De La Bruyère was a top runner on the cross country team, winning second at the NCAA Regional this year with a time of 21:13.5. As a distance runner, she will make an impact in events such as the mile and 3,000m, as evidenced by her strong performance in those events last year.
The outdoor track and field season will kick off after the NCAA Championships in March. The team will head to Tampa to compete at the South Florida meet on March 17-18. Princeton will host several meets in April, including the Sam Howell Invitational, the Princeton Outdoor Invite and the Larry Ellis Invitational. Given the cross country team’s impressive showing at Heps and the indoor team’s impressive season thus far, the team should look to impress again at the outdoor Ivy League Heptagonal Championships, which will take place at Weaver Stadium on May 7-8.
Most importantly, if the team manages to continue its string of successes outdoors, it will be because of a supportive and collaborative team, not because of individual feats.
Speaking about the outlook for the track and field team, freshman mid-distance runner Taylor Bacon said, “I think we had a very strong team dynamic for indoor. We really worked on our goals and how we can support each other in reaching our goals, and I think that will carry over very well into outdoor.”
Bacon added that she is most excited to see how the team will stack up at the outdoor Ivy League Championships. “I think we have a good chance at outdoor Heps, which is really exciting as a team,” she said.
The forecast for the outdoor women’s track and field season is certainly exciting, as the Tigers will look to translate their success from indoor to outdoor.
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