Men's, women's track take crowns in Princeton 5-Way

The indoor track teams had a successful Intersession. The men's team won both the Princeton Relays on Jan. 24 and the Princeton 5-Way on Saturday by impressive margins. The women finished in third at the Princeton Relays but came back to win the Princeton 5-Way.

At the Princeton Relays. the men dominated in the distance medley relay, in which the Tigers took the top three spots. The Tigers also won the 4 by 800-meter relay in 7:54.15.

The distance runners continued to set the pace when Princeton took the top six slots in the mile. Sophomore John Basler won the race in 4:15.63. The Tigers also finished first through fifth in the 3,000m run. Freshman Jeff Brine won that race in 8:48.60.

The best sprinting performance of the Princeton Relays went to Junior Justin Reed, who won the 400m dash by a full second. The men's team finished the Princeton Relays with 188 points, nearly three times as many as the second-place team, Howard, which scored 66.

At the Princeton 5-Way in New York City, the men dominated their competitors nearly as much. They finished the meet with 151 points, crushing their nearest rival, Lasalle, which scored 93 points.

Again, distance runners accounted for much of the scoring. Seniors Dan Mackenzie and Ryan Teising led the way with a one-two finish in the 5,000m run. Senior Jon Kieliszak won the 1,000m run with a time of 2:25.84, and freshman Ken Sinkovitz took third in the event. Frank McCreery won the 3,000m run in 8:25.53, and the Tigers also snagged fifth and sixth place.

The men took first, second and fifth in the 4 x 400m relay, and Junior Paul Lyons won the shot put at 17.68m to put an exclamation point on the Princeton victory in the last event of the Princeton 5-Way.

The women's team did not do quite as well as the men. After a third-place finish at the Princeton Relays, they won the Princeton 5-Way.

At the Princeton Relays, the women saw strong performances from their distance runners, just like the men. Senior Rebecca Snyder destroyed all comers in the 3,000m run, winning by 26.35 seconds. The distance relay was as easy for the women as it was for the men. The women nabbed the first six places, securing a ten-second cushion between its "F" team and Rutgers' "A" team in the process.

The rest of the wins, however, went almost exclusively to Rutgers and Howard. The Scarlet Knights ran away with the meet, scoring 176 points to Howard's 89 at second place. Princeton fell short of Howard by a single point in a close battle for runner-up.

The women rebounded fantastically at the Princeton 5-Way, though. They squeaked past Columbia with an eight-point win. The teams were tied at 149 points after the triple jump, in which Columbia racked up 13 points between three jumpers, and Princeton garnered eight from a second-place finish by sophomore Molly Jones. Columbia did not gain any points after that, and thirdand fifth-place finishes in the weight throw secured the win for the Tigers.

Relay success was key to Princeton's win, as the women took the distance medley relay again as well as the 4 x 400m relay. Their distance strength carried them through as well, with wins by junior Carrie Strickland in the mile, which was part of a one-two-three Tiger finish, and sophomore Diane Heiser in the 1,000m run. Senior Hasina Outtz also won the 400m run in 57.29.