4x400 finish secures Heps win for men

The men's and women's track and field teams ran out of their shoes this weekend — literally, in one case. The Princeton men outlasted Cornell to win the Ivy League Indoor Heptagonal Championship. Meanwhile, senior Caroline Mullen ran the final three laps of her mile with just one shoe as the women fought bad luck to a fourth-place finish.

Going into the final men's event at the Armory in New York, the 4x400-meter relay, Princeton clung to a five-point lead over Cornell. Anchored by senior Richard Stewart, the Tiger relay team needed a third-place finish to guarantee the title.

Second place worked just fine too, and they finished the race behind only the Cornell runners. Both the Big Red's time of three minutes, 12.98 seconds and the Tigers' 3:13.07 broke the previous Heps record.

Overall, the Princeton men finished with 154 points, and Cornell, who had won the indoor championship for the previous two years, came in a close second with 151 points. A wave of orange and black rushed the track after Stewart sealed the victory.

"When I was trying to decide if it felt better to win by three or to blow out Cornell, I decided that winning by three meant every point contribution really mattered," sophomore sprinter Ian Thomson, a member of the championship-deciding relay team, explained.

Princeton led by 32 points going into the second and final day of the meet. They soon fell behind Cornell, though, before three upperclassmen provided a spark in the 5,000 m race.

Junior David Nightingale edged out classmate Justin Pines, as they went 1-2 in the event, and senior Paul Rosa also chipped in, finishing fourth in a race that amassed 22 points for the Tigers.

"It gave us an enormous momentum swing, as Cornell appeared to be pulling away," Nightingale said.

Nightingale also won the 3000 m, and he was once again accompanied by a teammate at the top of the standings. Sophomore Michael Maag claimed second in that race as well as the mile, but saved his best performance for the distance medley, when his 1600 m time of 4:08.3 in the final leg of the relay beat Cornell's team by .64 seconds.

"It was great to enter the last turn where our team was gathered. The track was lined with orange and black, and the noise was deafening," Maag said. "It really helped our distance medley give it all we had, which happened to be just enough."

Having won the cross-country Heps in the fall in addition to their indoor victory this weekend, the men's team will try to complete the Heps sweep at the outdoor championship in the spring.

Women overcome obstacles

The women did not fare as well as the men but still managed to capture fourth place, despite a couple of unfortunate mishaps. There was the incident where, despite having her shoe stepped on by an opponent, Caroline Mullen persevered and managed to finish the race. Then, freshman Reilly Kiernan was knocked down during the 3000 m; yet she still crossed the finish line.

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Cornell dominated the weekend, earning 159 points, while Brown (71) and Penn (68) followed far behind in second and third. Princeton collected 56 points in its fourth-place effort.

"Although we were not thrilled with our overall performance as a team, there were some great individual performances that really stand out," senior team captain Catha Mullen said.

Catha Mullen herself turned in a fantastic performance with a second-place finish in the 3000 m and a third-place in the mile. She deflected individual credit, however, to others such as sophomore Agatha Offorjebe, who finished third in the 200 m dash and as part of the 4x400-meter relay team, and freshman Liz Costello, who placed fourth in the 800 m.

As for Catha, she had "mixed feelings," about her races, pointing out that she had previously beaten both runners that finished above her in the mile. On the other hand, Catha battled fatigue in her second race and moved from seventh to second in the last two laps, just a few hours after her mile effort.

"After fading in the mile, it felt great to finish so strongly in the 3k, and I was definitely much more pleased with that finish," she said.

Mullen had company at the top for both of her races, as freshman Christy Johnson finished fourth in the mile and 3000 m. The senior-freshman distance-running combo accounted for 22 of Princeton's 56 points.

The Tigers will try to improve on their performance as they move into the spring season, and hopefully they will only be flying out of their shoes in a figurative sense next time.