You wouldn't know it from the subzero weather around Princeton, but things are heating up — at least for the purposes of the men's and women's track and field teams.
Between the upcoming HYP meet this weekend and the ever-closer spring track season, the Tigers are headed toward some serious competition. That makes each team's strong performance over Intersession all the more reassuring.
While the women's track and field team notched several top performances in large meets, junior Dave Nightingale and sophomore Michael Maag both qualified provisionally for the NCAA championship mile race in March. Nightingale also came close to setting a school record in the 3,000m.
The men's team traveled to University Park, Pa., for the Penn State National Invitational, while the women competed in the George Mason Games Jan. 26 and 27. After strong performances in each, the two teams converged for the more competitive New Balance Collegiate Invitational this past weekend. Facing much stronger competition at the New Balance Invitational, which featured some 2,700 athletes representing more than 200 schools, neither team placed as highly as they did the previous weekend.
"We performed well at both meets, which were both very competitive," men's head coach Fred Samara said. "Our goal in attending these meets is to give the team more experience in [its] events."
Overall team results were not calculated for any of the team's meets, but the Tigers put up a strong showing.
Field and distance events were the strengths of the women's team at the Mason Games, as they have been throughout the season. Leading the field events, junior Emma Harper threw the shot put 12.72m to edge out her competition and earn a victory. Harper later added to her success, tossing the 20 lb. weight 14.01m for third place.
Adding to Princeton's success on the field, sophomore high jumper Christina Argyros cleared 1.60 meters, finishing second. Sophomore Jess Kloss earned third in the pole vault by clearing 3.5m.
Freshman Liz Costello and senior Catha Mullen blazed through the mile, earning first and second places among collegiate competition. With times of four minutes, 50.54 seconds and 4:50.72, respectively, they finished within milliseconds of one another; however, they were four seconds ahead of the third-place runner. Freshman Christy Johnson had a 17-second win in the 3,000m race, and the distance medley team finished in 12:20.47, 12 seconds before the second-place Virginia team.
Princeton's distance runners continued their outstanding performance from the prior week, when they provided nearly all of the highlight moments from the prior weekend's New Balance Invitational. On the first of the two day meet, the Tigers won both of the 5,000m races. Sophomore Jolee VanLeuven, battling an injured Achilles tendon, won the seeded 5,000m, crossing the finish line in 16:42.98.
"I felt I could I have ran faster if not for my ankle, but [the injury] may have helped, because I ran a consistent speed throughout," VanLeuven said. "Around the 10th lap I noticed that the other runners started to trail behind, and I kept moving."
Junior Caitlin McTague won the open race, completing the 5,000m in 17:24.15. Sophomore Agatha Offorjebe, Johnson, Mullen and Costello finished third in the distance medley, running an impressive 11:27.27 that beat the old school record of 11.27.39, set in 1996.
The men's team, like its female counterparts, gave two laudable performances over Intersession. At the Penn State Invitational, sophomore Michael Maag and junior David Nightingale placed second and third in 4:03.12 and 4:03.55 respectively.
Princeton also managed to make its presence known at the New Balance invitational despite the plethora of competitors. In the final of three 1,000m races, senior Eric Beights highlighted the Tigers' first day by taking a very close second place, running the course in 2:27.30.
"We are counting on Eric Beights to continually improve, and as one of more experienced athletes, he is a leader on the team," Samara said.
Freshman Justin Frick also gave a strong performance on the same day, clearing the 6'7" for the day's third-best performance in high jump.
The second day was even more successful. Nightingale notched another outstanding race, finishing the 3,000m in just over eight minutes. Nightingale's time was the second best in school history.
Senior Andrew Park cleared 5.10m in the pole vault, and senior Rich Stewart ran the 500m in 1:02.85, topping the collegiate athletes in their respective meets.
The 4x800 squad of sophomores Collin Plummer and Mike Kowal, junior Kurt Kuehne and freshman Jordan Hill trailed Columbia by a half second for a close second place.
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