M. and w. track get ready for quad and tri meets respectively

This weekend, the men's and women's track and field teams start a month long build-up to the heptagonal championships with full-strength quad and tri meets, respectively. The men's team will compete at home against Villanova, Penn and Penn State, while the women's team takes on Penn and Yale on the storied University of Pennsylvania track.

At the indoor heptagonal championships, the women's team made marked strides in league competition, finishing a strong third to Cornell and Harvard.

Although neither Penn nor Yale fields teams with Princeton's breadth of event depth, specific individuals will give the Tigers a challenge and make for a highly competitive race. Specifically, Yale junior All-American distance running twins Laura and Kate O'Neil look to improve their 10km and 5km speed in stepping down to run the 1500m and 3km races.

Kate O'Neil, the current national leader in the 5km (16:01.99) could challenge Lauren Simmons — national No. 2 in the 800m (2:05.23) — over a middle ground of 1500m. Simmons, a senior and the Princeton team captain, is following up a school record-breaking weekend at the Duke Invitational with some over-distance racing. In the 3000m, senior cross country captain Catherine Casey looks to capitalize on her excellent training of late in racing on the track on which she had her break-through performance last spring, running a personal best 9:44 at the Penn Relays.

Her recent 16:33.85 for 5km at the Stanford Invitational suggests that if pushed by the O'Neil twins, that personal record may be shattered.

Head Coach Peter Farrell notes that the Penn track is conducive to running fast times, not only because of the legendary and inspiring stadium but also because the wide turns require less gait change, a minor fact that can greatly influence results when compounded over numerous laps.

The men's team hosts a trio of Penn. schools including Ivy foe, UPenn. Should the competing schools choose to field full teams, the distance events should see some remarkable competition. Villanova, under the tutelage of former running great Marcus O'Sullivan, has one of the strongest distance running contingents in the country. Led by indoor NCAA 3km champion Adrian Blincoe and All-American Ryan Hayden, the Wildcats also captured the NCAA indoor distance medley relay.

The philosophy employed by the Villanova program, however, is one of long-term development and moderation in number of races run, meaning Princeton may likely not have such high caliber competition. Penn fields a well balanced team, unlike distance-heavy Villanova, and should present an all-around challenge to defending indoor Heptagonal champion Princeton.

This smaller meet will be in vast contrast to the last meet the Tigers hosted, that being the Sam Howell Invitational. At the event, 700 athletes from 14 schools came to strut their stuff against Princeton.

At the invitational, sophomore Josh McCaughey broke the Princeton record for the hammer throw with a mark of 61.81 meters (202 feet, nine inches). Despite the impressive accomplishment, he finished secnd overall at the invitational behind Jim Heizman from the Shore AC club.

Sophomore Rocky Craley captured the shotput title with a distance of 16.40 meters, sophomore John Kieliszak also set the top mark in the men's 800 meter race with the time of 1:53.