Women's track and field sees success at Ivy League Heptagonals

The Princeton women’s track and field team took a respectable fourth place at the Ivy League Indoor Heptagonal Track & Field Championships over the weekend of Feb. 28, with senior Cecilia Barowski providing an individual highlight as she set multiple records in her performance at the 500-meter dash.

Barowski had seen prior success in the 500, setting a Princeton record with her time of 1:12.38 as a freshman in 2012 and finishing just shy of teammate Kim Mackay ’15 in last year’s contest. However, Barowski simply ran away with all the honors this year, setting a meet, facility and personal record when she crushed the competition with a time of 1:11.34.

Additionally, junior Allison Harris had a dominant weekend across various field events. On Saturday, she won the women’s pole vault with a 4.15-meter performance, taking home Princeton’s eighth title in the past 11 years. However, Harris went on to star in the 60 m hurdles, finishing in sixth place and gaining the Tigers yet another point in the meet as a whole. At the conclusion of the event, head coaches named Harris Most Outstanding Field Performer of the Meet.

However, despite these individual successes, the women’s team as a whole fell behind powerful Harvard and Cornell squads. Sophomore Kennedy O’Dell took fifth place in the shot put, with her throw of 13.01 falling behind Nikki Okwelogu of Harvard and Michaela Smith, Leena Morris and Taylor Draytonof Cornell. In the 400, Harvard’s Autumne Franklin and Cornell’s Udeme Akpaete also swept the top two spots, just outdoing Princeton junior Elisa Steele, who finished sixth with a time of 57.31. The foursome of Steele, Barowski, sophomore Quinn Parker and senior Meghan McMullin also fell behind Harvard and Cornell relays in the 4x400, taking fourth with a strong time of 3:48.89, while Princeton’s 4x800 squad of junior Katie Hanss, freshman Alie Fordyce, freshman Anna Jurew and sophomore Ashley Forte also finished just behind Brown and Columbia with a third-place finish of 8:50.81.

Ultimately, the Princeton women took fourth place in the overall competition, with the team’s score of 77 placing ahead of Brown’s 65.5, Columbia’s 52, Penn’s 48.5 and Yale’s 16. The Tigers were beaten out by Harvard’s 136.5 points, Cornell’s score of 123.5 and Dartmouth’s mark of 101.

Despite the lower team finish, the Tigers can take pride in the promise shown by their underclassmen. Competing in her first Ivy Heptagonals, freshman Kerri Davidson managed to take third place in the triple jump with a 12.22-meter effort. Additionally, Forte and Jurew both complemented their strong performances in the 4x800 relay with top results in the 800: Forte ran a 2:10.77 to take second place overall, while Jurew finished just behind her with a 2:11.76 mark, good for a scoring finish.

The Tigers will wrap up their indoor season on March 11-12, when Barowskicompetes in the 800 at the NCAA Championships.