Trading tennis for track in the name of fitness

For anyone who went to the men's track meet Sunday and was a little surprised to see lanky tennis players wearing Princeton uniforms in the 4x400, your eyes were not deceiving you. The top eight players on the men's tennis team put aside their rackets and put on spikes Sunday to race in the New Year Invitational at Jadwin Gym.

Senior captain John Portlock conceived of the idea to enter his hard-hitting team in the Invitational one month ago as a motivational tool to help his teammates through their grueling off-season workout schedule. This offseason — following the Tiger's victory at the ECAC Championships in the fall — Princeton has been working hard to improve its fitness.

"When Portlock had this idea, most of the guys said, 'Sure Portlock,' " senior Will Partlett said. "Most guys didn't think we'd actually run. But Portlock talked to the track coach and it happened."

Though the two 4x400 teams fielded by the men's tennis team ran competitive races, the members of the track teams at the meet — Penn, St. Joseph's, Rider, The College of New Jersey and Princeton — did not exactly have butterflies in their stomachs at the starting line because of the surprise threats they faced. The two 4x400 teams — consisting of sophomores Brandon Tung and Trevor Smith, Portlock and senior Kyle Kliegerman on the first team and freshmen Tim Kofol and Dan Friedman, junior Nick Benjamin and Partlett on the second team — ran respectable times of 3:49 and 3:53, but this placed them well behind the winning relay team from St. Joseph's, which won with a time of 3:21.

"If it had been a high school meet, they might have won," freshman track runner Carter Clement said.

Sweating to the oldies

Following their successful fall, the Tigers have been doing a lot of conditioning in preparation for their spring season — which kicks off in Feb. They hope that by being in better shape than their opponents they will be able to cruise to an Ivy League championship in the spring.

"We've been running a lot in the offseason," Kliegerman said. "We didn't race as a challenge to the track team but just to have a fun experience. We've been working on and off the courts to get faster."

And faster they have become. When the tennis players began preparing for the New Year Invitational a month ago, they were hoping to break four minutes — a goal they easily achieved. They also accomplished their goal of flawlessly passing the baton at each exchange.

Senior track captain Tensai Aswaf — who did not race in this early season meet — was impressed by the efforts of his counterparts from the tennis team.

"They looked good!" Aswaf said. "I'm thinking they're going to have to stick to tennis. But Portlock, with his shaved head and 56.09 split, really looked like a runner out there."

Some of the tennis players who either did not own spikes or could not borrow a pair had to purchase racing shoes for the meet. They also bought new running shorts in the hopes of cutting precious seconds off their times.

Overall, the meet helped the Tigers not only get in shape but also build team unity.

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"This was something we worked for as a team," Partlett said. "This is the best shape our team's been in in a while. When we start matches in February, we'll be prepared to go for that third set. We're hoping that our conditioning will push us over the edge."

Princeton will now have to dust off its rackets and put away its spikes, at least until next year's New Year Invitational. The men's tennis players may have looked good on the track this weekend, but, after all, their real home is the hard courts.

"I don't think any of us will be transferring to the track team anytime soon," Smith said. "But I did have a lot of fun, even if I do like tennis shorts a little more than those short track shorts we had to wear."