W. track takes fourth place at indoor Heps

The Princeton women's track team placed fourth last weekend at the annual indoor track Heptagonal Championships. Attended by all eight Ivy League schools as well as Navy, Heps inevitably features a hard-fought battle for the opportunity and privilege to go home victorious as Heps champions.

"We were obviously hoping to do better," captain Christine Iseman said of the meet. "We went in hoping for first and driving for first — we had things just go the other way for us."

This year was no exception. Cornell won the meet with 114 points, with Yale and Harvard placing second and third, respectively. Princeton's 66 points trailed Harvard by only seven. The sequence of the remaining places was Dartmouth, Brown, Columbia, Navy, and Penn.

The Tigers took third place at last year's indoor Heps.

Perhaps the most commendable performance by an individual over the course of the weekend was sophomore Chelo Canino's stunning pole vault effort on Saturday. Launching herself to a height of 12 feet, 10.25 inches, Canino not only won the event but also surpassed the meet record by over four inches.

Junior Susan Coltman also won her event — the pentathlon. She finished with 3556 points, edging out Kelsey Weigmann of Dartmouth, who had 3501. Coltman ended up with individual event scores of 9.12 seconds (60m hurdles), 5-02.50 (high jump), 33-10.75 (shot put), 17-06.75 (long jump), and 2:26.41 (800m run).

"The scores going into the competition were low, so I hoped to win," Coltman said. "It was an average performance for me."

Going the distance

The distance squad put on a very respectable showing as well. While overwhelming favorites Kate and Laura O'Neill of Yale combined to dominate the field, Princeton's runners were close behind. Junior Emily Kroshus placed second in the 5k run with a time of 16:29.50, just behind O'Neill, and freshman Cack Ferrell finished fourth in the mile run with a time of 4:54.99. Kroshus and Ferrell also combined to finish 3-4 in the 3k event. Their times were 9:36.87 and 9:37.84, respectively. The O'Neill twins finished 1-2 in that same race. In addition, junior Laura Petrillo won the unseeded heat of the 3k, crossing the finish line in 17:23.77. Freshman Meredith Lambert added another medal to the Tiger collection by taking first place in the unseeded heat of the 5k, finishing with a time of 19:54.03.

Other achievements

Despite the fourth-place overall finish and dearth of victories, there were numerous other quality performances on display throughout the weekend.

Junior Hasina Outtz came in a close second in the 60m hurdles, narrowly losing to Mary Ser-dakowski of Harvard by 0.02 seconds. Outtz's final time was 8.84.

The 4x800m relay team also did well, finishing second to Harvard with a final time of 8:59.46. The Princeton relay group consisted of Iseman, Wagenseller, Heiser, and sophomore Carrie Strickland.

Sophomore Brooke Minor placed third at Heps in the high jump, jumping 5-07.00 to take the bronze.

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"I left the meet with mixed feelings," Iseman added. "Disappointed about the meet but hopeful about the spring."

Indoor Heptagonals concludes the team portion of the indoor track season. Various individual events are held over the next few weeks, gradually leading to the NCAA Championships.

But outdoor track is just around the corner, and consists of almost all of the same events, a chance for a fresh start, and another shot at a Heps title.

"There is a lot of talent on the team, but things need to be worked out," Coltman said. "Hopefully that will get done in the outdoor season."

"Typically we end up being a better team in the spring," Iseman added. "During the winter there were injuries and illnesses that kept team members out of competition. Some extra training should help to push some of us to enough points to qualify in the spirng."