Though the men's and women's track teams competed in races with different names last weekend, the two teams produced similar results.
On the women's side, the team competed in the Eastern College Athletic Conference championship meet and boasted several strong performances, finishing the meet in eleventh place with 25 points in the 46-team field.
For the men, led by sophomore Frank Tinney's breakout performance in the 5000 meter race, Princeton finished 12th in the IC4A track meet, 24 points behind champion George Mason's 59 points, as Penn placed second and Cornell placed third.
The Tigers began the three-day competition well with Tinney pulling ahead in the 5000m event to finish in fourth place with a time of 14 minutes, 8.24 seconds, only seven seconds behind champion Richard Kiplagat of Iona. The outstanding performance ensures that the Tigers will continue to have a potent long distance threat after senior Frank McCreery's graduation.
The day continued to be good for the Tigers' distance program as freshman Brian Sharkey finished an impressive 12th in the 3000m steeplechase with a time of 9:20.05. The steeplechase is a distance event that requires runners to jump large hurdles and small pools of water. The further an athlete is able to clear the hurdle by, the less the water will slow the runner down.
Princeton did not disappoint in the field events either, with solid showings by junior Andrew Park in the pole vault, senior Derek Davis in the long jump, senior Josh Probst in the javelin and sophomore Alex Willis in the high jump.
Park's third place jump of 16 feet, 10 inches was one of only three jumps of the day to clear the five-meter mark while Davis' leap in the long jump of 23'5" was good for fourth. Probst's toss of 65 meters was good for third in the javelin and Willis cleared the 6'8" mark for sixth.
In middle distance, the Tigers' team of junior Eric Beights, freshman Mike Kowal, freshman Collin Plummer and sophomore Kurt Kuehne had an exceptional performance in the 4x800 prelims on Saturday with a time of 7:35.44, finishing third. But the team fell a bit short in the finals the next day, finishing ninth with a time of 7:44.37.
Though the Tigers finished behind Ivy League foes Penn and Cornell, the future still looks bright. Sharkey, a former Gulliver Prep standout, showed promise this season two years after his spectacular performance at the 2004 FHSAA finals in Tampa, Fla., which was the fourth-fastest time ever run on the course. In addition, Tinney bested his personal record by over 20 seconds and appears ready to assume the leadership of Princeton's distance program.
For the women, junior Catha Mullen posted one of her best performances of the season in the 1500m race. Mullen won the preliminary before taking second in the finals with a time of 4:25.08, less than a quarter second behind the race leader. Mullen was the top Ivy League finisher in the event. Senior teammate Cack Ferrell finished just a few seconds behind Mullen to take seventh in the race.
Senior Suzanne Andrews continued her excellent season in the 3000m steeplechase. Andrews finished the race in a close fourth at 10:37.21. The top four finishers in the race were separated by less than 10 seconds.
In the 5000m run, junior Mia Swenson ran the event in under 17 minutes, which was fast enough for ninth place. Swenson was the third-fastest Ivy League competitor in the 30-person field. In the 3,000m race, freshman Jolee Vanleuven finished in 9:37.14 for fifth place.
Coming off her win in the Ivy League Heptagonal championships, freshman pole vaulter Jessica Kloss had another strong performance over the weekend. Kloss tied for fifth in the event with a jump height of 11'11.75". She was the second-best Ivy League finisher in the event.
The Tigers' middle distance runners were well represented in the 4x800m relay. The team of freshman Alex Smith, sophomores Liz Bergold and Heather Iatauro and senior Lindsay Cole initially struggled. After finishing eighth in the 14 team preliminaries, the Tigers improved their time by three seconds and in the process moved up to sixth place in the finals.
In two weeks, the Tigers will make the long trip down to Durham, N.C., to compete in the NCAA Eastern Track & Field Regional Championships.
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