Freshman Canino sets pole vault mark for w. track at New Year Invite

Though last Friday night's New Year Invitational, at which Princeton faced a few local teams, counted very little for the women's track team, the Tigers discovered an important new addition to the team.

Freshman Chelo Canino set a new meet and school record in the pole vault when she cleared 12 feet, one-and-a-half inches. No team score was kept for the meet, but Canino's mark, coupled with the impressive performances of several other Tigers, gives Princeton an improved outlook on the coming season. Canino is the first legitimate women's high jumper at Princeton since the introduction of the sport a few short years ago.

Last year at indoor Heptagonal Championships, Princeton had no field athletes place in the top three, and only two Tigers — sophomore Susan Coltman in the pentathlon and Rebecca Desman '01 in the high jump — made the top five. The addition of Canino should give Princeton a sizeable boost in the field events.

Canino's mark puts her exactly even with the winning height at last year's Heps. Amanda Hasenauer of Navy and Lauren Contursi of Brown tied at 12-1.5, easily outdistancing the remainder of the competition. In fact, 12-1.5 stands as the Heptagonal record in the relatively new event.

Any points Canino adds at Heps will augment Princeton's total of 30 that earned the Tigers sixth place last year. Senior Lauren Simmons earned a large chunk of those points when she won the 800-meter run at Heps last year.

Simmons looked sharp once again in this first meet of the season. She took the 1000-meter run Friday night in 2:51.69. The 1000 is a regular event in men's indoor track, but it is rarely run by women. Therefore, it takes some math to deduce how good Simmons' time was.

A 2:51.69 for the 1000 translates to a 2:17.36 for the 800, given even splits, just four seconds off of Simmons' winning time at last year's indoor Heps. Since she would likely keep up a faster clip for a shorter race, and since this is an early-season race, Simmons seems headed for another successful year.

Chanel Lattimer, another freshman, was another winner for Princeton. She took the 55-meter dash in 7.22 seconds. Athletes race the 60-meter dash at Heptagonals, but Lattimer's time suggests that Princeton will be strong in the short sprint for the first time since Nicole Harrison '99 graduated. Lattimer also finished second in the 200-meter dash, falling by less than a tenth of a second to Danielle Hobson of Rutgers.

Sophomore Liz Morse, who usually runs the 400, took fourth in the 500-meter dash in a respectable time of 1:18.25. Most of Princeton's distance runners took the meet off, but junior Emily Smith finished fourth in the mile in 5:24.24, which was a pretty good time for this point in the season.

This is Princeton's last meet until after Christmas break, when the Tigers head to the Armory Invitational in New York City, Jan. 11-12.