The Princeton women's track team had high hopes before last weekend's Heptagonal Championships. While certainly not one of the favored teams, the Tigers looked to several key individuals for big performances that could have carried the whole squad to a respectable finish.
Princeton got some of the individual results it had hoped for, but the team as a whole finished eighth out of nine teams. The Tigers' 30 points put them 102 points behind first-place Brown.
"That's not a finish to be proud of," head coach Peter Farrell said. "Of course we were disappointed."
The Tigers enjoyed few bright spots on their way to finishing well below the third-place finish they had hoped for.
Princeton's lackluster performance could not dull junior Lauren Simmons' impressive win in the 800-meter race. Besting Columbia's Erin Raggio by less than a second, Simmons successfully defended her Heps title with a time of two minutes, 9.77 seconds.
Simmons anchored the third-place 4x800 relay team as well. The group — which included junior Emily Smith, senior Lauren Hofmann and freshman Liz Morse — finished in 8:59.11.
One Tiger also shattered an individual record with her performance at Heps. Freshman Susan Coltman set a new Princeton record in the heptathlon, posting a score of 5051 points. She finished second overall in the meet behind Brown's Lindsay Taylor. Senior Becky Haarlow set the old mark of 4700 points at the 1999 Penn Relays.
Other Tigers had somewhat disappointing personal finishes including junior Catherine Casey and sophomore Sarah Rivlin, who finished sixth and tenth, respectively, in the 3000. Casey finished the race with a time of 10:02.70, well off the 9:44.20 she ran at Penn Relays this season. Rivlin finished in 10:12.30, .18 seconds better than — but 2 places behind — her own performance at last year's Heps.
Haarlow — who had been a regular contender for the triple jump crown in many of this season's meets — finished seventh in her signature event with a jump of 11.83-m. She also ran with the seventh-place 4x100 and eighth-place 4x400 teams.
Harvard's Brenda Taylor was named the Athlete of the Meet on the women's side for her victories in the 100 dash and 100 hurdles, as well as with the 4x400 team. Taylor also finished second in the 200 and ran on the runner-up 4x100 relay squad.
Taylor broke Nicole Harrison '99's Heptagonal record for the 100 hurdles with a time of 13.56 in her semifinal heat.
In two weeks, the Tigers will host their final meet of the season — the ECAC Championships. Even with several team members competing for spots at the ECACs, there is no real last minute training strategy in the works.
"We rest," Farrell said. "It's the end of the season and there's not much we can do."
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