Men's track finishes third as women take fifth place at Armory Invitational

Early in the season, everyone knows that training hasn't fully sunk in yet, and the team's best performances lie somwewhere in the not-too-distant future.

But this did not stop the Princeton track and field team from making itself a major player in the two-day Armory Invitational in New York City this past weekend in both the men's and women's competitions. The Tiger men placed third out of 19 teams, behind formidable competition from the likes of Ohio State and South Carolina. Likewise, the women's team held its own against these national powerhouses — as well as against reigning Ivy champ Brown — by finishing 5th overall, one spot behind the Bears.

"Looking back, we had a good meet," women's head coach Peter Farrell said. "The weather may have hampered some of our athletes' training, but we still had some pretty good performances all around."

Of course, the men's team showcased its versatility again with fine performances by both track and field athletes. Leading the pack, sophomore distance runner Mike Baird put together a first-place run with a time of eight minutes, 30.90 seconds in the 3000-meter run. The men's 4x800 relay team also showed impressive strides, winning its event handily with a time of 7:39.95.

In the field events, three Tiger freshman phenoms grabbed the spotlight for the day. Rocky Craley launched an impressive shot-put of 55 feet, .75 inches to claim first place in the event, while Josh McCaughey outmuscled his competion to win the 35 lb. weight throw with a toss of 63-11. The shot put event was also littered with Princeton faces. Senior captain Scott Denbo placed third while sophomore Jeff Petrulis and junior Liam Morton finished fifth and seventh, respectively, to round out the Tiger throwing onslaught.

Yet it was still the freshmen's day to shine, capped off by the jump of Marcus Ford-Bey. The rookie also took first place, leaping to a distance of 45-8.5 in the triple jump.

On the women's side, the Tigers raced well across the board, capturing a number of second-place results.

"We got a lot of second-place finishes, which is odd, but I guess finishing out those races just comes with practice," Farrell said.

"All our top runners had some impressive performances, but they were all in cases where the race was quite winnable. They know that they could have won, but it's still early in the season."

In a particularly strong performance for the women, freshman Liz Moore started her season on the right foot with a second-place finish in the 800 (2:12.15). Following in the same footsteps, junior Catherine Casey contributed a second-place effort to the women's scoring, finishing with a solid 5:07.95 in her mile run. Rounding out the women's top performances, freshman Emily Kroshus hung close and turned in yet another second in the 3000, finishing in a time of 10:02.55. Her time was "very good" for this time of the season, according to senior Jen Cannistra.

In field events, the women also had a strong effort. They contributed with a number of top-10 performances, including senior Rebecca Haarlow's sixth-place finish in the triple jump and freshman Hasina Outtz's seventh place in the long jump.

"I think you can already tell at this time of year that we are going to be pretty competitive," Cannistra said. "We had a great first meet, we're showing some really good times in practice and there is definitely a really good vibe going around the team."