Top outdoor track athletes to compete in California

The men's and women's outdoor track and field teams look to take their early-season successes across the country this weekend to the Mt. Sac Invitationals in Walnut, Calif.

The teams will be splitting up their rosters between the national meet in California and two local venues on the East Coast.

The men hope to continue their winning ways at Weaver Track, where they will face off against a small field of local competitors. The women's team will be visiting Easton, Pa., to compete in the Leopard Invitational hosted by Lafayette. Most people's eyes, however, will be fixed on California.

The Invitational features many of the strongest programs and most dominant individuals in the nation. Hundreds of athletes from dozens of schools will be competing in the event.

For some Tigers, the event is one of the rare opportunities in a season to test themselves against national-caliber opponents. Only two Princeton track and field athletes qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships in the winter — sophomore Cack Ferrel in the 3,000-meter and senior Emily Kroshus in the 5,000m.

But for many of the women, it will not be the first time they have made the journey to the West Coast this year. The team spent its Intersession in southern California to race and train. The trip served not only as an opportunity to reestablish race form, but also to relax after the Tigers' second-place finish at the indoor Ivy League Heptagonal Championships. This weekend's trip, however, is all business.

Those women who are not making the trip to California will be competing in the Leopard Invitational. They hope to bounce back after a disappointing loss in last weekend's tri-meet against Ivy League rivals Penn and Yale.

At home, the men's team will face Rutgers, Manhattan and Iona. The Tigers have already taken on the Scarlet Knights and Jaspers at the season-opening Sam Howell Invitational.

But the Tigers' early successes do not guarantee that this will be an easy meet. Both Rutgers and Manhattan had several strong individual showings in the first meeting between the teams. But without all of the Tigers' top athletes competing in the event, the meet may be much more even than expected.

Although the opening meet was really a tuneup for many of the competitors, Princeton was able to demonstrate its skill and depth. The meet did not calculate overall team point totals, but the Tigers walked away with several individual victories and top-three finishes.

Several men have been particularly impressive since that season opener. Junior sprinter Dwayne Banton finished second in both the 100m and 200m dashes. Last week in a tri-meet in Philadelphia against Penn and Villanova, Banton improved his times and his finishes, taking two victories in the events.

The 400m tandem of juniors Mike Kopp and Justin Reed continues to dominate. The duo has finished 1-2 in the first two meets.

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The men's field team nearly swept last week's events, finishing with six individual victories. Senior javelin thrower Tim Releford, who with a 221-foot throw in the opening meet qualified for the NCAA Championships, and senior hammer thrower Mark Smith have anchored the field team through this point in the season.