Tigers turn in strong showings at Penn Relays

In its 111th year, the Penn Relays at Franklin Field in Philadelphia is heralded as America's largest track meet and the world's first relay meet. Not only does it provide a chance for the top track athletes in every age group to compete, but it is also the showcase for future Olympians — every modern summer Olympics has seen a gold medal awarded to former Relays participants. Given the prestige of the event, the performances turned in by Princeton's men and women track teams were even more impressive.

Beginning Thursday, the distance medley championship relay team of sophomore Catha Mullen, freshman Leanne Bellar and juniors Lindsay Cole and Cack Ferrell showed the 50,000 fans a great performance. The Tigers ran the unique race, which has different distances for each of the four legs, in 11:37.13. Mullen ran the initial 1,200-meter leg, Bellar took the 400m leg, Cole had the 800m and Ferrell finished out the race with the 1,600m run. Princeton earned 10th place, while Duke won with a time of 11:10.18.

"We were excited to get in the fast race," Mullen said. "The teams are traditionally a little bit better than us so we weren't expecting to beat them, but we did a really good job overall."

Another standout performance from the women's side came from senior high jumper Brooke Minor, who competed in the Eastern portion of the college women's high jump. She cleared five feet, seven inches to capture second place in her event. The 4x100m relay team of Bellar and juniors Laura Landry, Juliette Poussot and Annie Santi also did well, as it ran the race in a time of 47.82 seconds, finishing fourth.

Two pole vaulters also had impressive results. Junior Meredith Mante leapt 11 feet, five and three-quarters inches, which earned her 11th place in her event. Freshman vaulter Courtney Regan placed 14th, clearing 11 feet.

On Friday, the Tigers continued to post solid performances. The women's 4x1,500m relay group finished sixth with a time of 18:22.80. Junior Meredith Lambert, sophomore Caroline Mullen and seniors Randy Buzzell and Marian Bihrle comprised the team.

Junior triple jumper Molly Jones also competed on Friday afternoon in the Eastern division. She earned 23rd place with her leap of 36 feet, one-quarter of an inch.

Princeton had its final day of events on Saturday with the women competing in the 4x800m championship race against schools including North Carolina and Stanford. The relay team of juniors Jordan Wagenseller, Lindsay Cole, freshman Elizabeth Bergold and sophomore Catha Mullen finished 11th with a time of 8:52.15.

Men's 4x400m relay wins

The men's team also participated in the Penn Relays with outstanding results. On Friday, the 4x400m relay group won its event, which makes it the favorite for next weekend's Ivy League Heptagonals meet in New York City. Sophomores Bryan Shields, Dan Saltzman and Richard Stewart and senior Mike Kopp earned the number one spot with a time of 3:13.47, coming in more than a second ahead of Penn.

Senior Mike Weishuhn competed in the Eastern high jump event, placing second with a jump of six feet, nine and a half inches. Junior pole vaulter Kyle Whitaker placed sixth in the "Eastern" competition with a 15 foot, one inch leap.

Rounding out the day on Friday, junior Frank McCreery ran in the 5,000m "Olympic Development" race against some of the top runners in the country. With a time of 14:20.60, McCreery qualified for the IC4A meet at Princeton in two weeks.

Princeton's success was not limited to the first two days of competition, as the team continued to challenge competitors as the weekend progressed. The 4x800m relay team snagged the gold in its race. Sophomore Aaron Reed, senior Alexis Tingan and freshmen Josh Wolfe and Kurt Kuehne finished the race with a time of 7:33.94.

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The Tigers were not favored to win based on the seeding they had in their heat, but they managed to eke out the win by a narrow margin.

"Your seeding determines what heat you get placed into," Tingan said. "With our seed in this event, we had a pretty good chance to win, but we weren't the favorites. We definitely performed better than our seed dictated."

The Tigers ran a very tight race, coming in ahead of Duke, Kentucky and Columbia, all of whom trailed by less than one second.

"It was a great race for us — we won the college division," Tingan said. "It was an especially good relay for our two freshmen who ran the last legs of the race. They brought it home well for us."

In the non-running events, the men also had strong performances. Junior javelin thrower Josh Probst placed third with a throw of 197 feet, 10 inches. Junior Ken Stringer and Matt McNamara competed in the hammer throw competition with tosses of 169 feet, 11 inches and 148 feet, one inch, respectively.

Sophomore pole vaulter Andrew Park competed in the championship college event. His leap of 16 feet, four and three-quarters inches earned him sixth place of the seven competitors.

Overall, the Tigers came away from the meet with confidence that should serve them well as they look forward to the upcoming weekend's Ivy League Championships and ECACs in two weeks.