Tigers go to Disney World after Park and Pessala qualify for Regionals

Fresh off crowning three All-Americans in the indoor season, the men's and women's track and field teams went to Florida during spring break to open the outside season.

On March 21, at the National Training Center in Clermont, Fla., senior pole vaulter Andrew Park and sophomore hammer thrower Alex Pessala both qualified for NCAA Regionals while the team claimed five first-place individual finishes in the next two days at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex.

Not only did Park qualify for May's NCAA Regional competition in Gainesville, Fla., but he also vaulted his way to second place in program history with a jump of 17 feet, two-and-a-quarter inches. The mark falls behind only the 17'19'' jump of Kevin McGuire '93.

Pessala qualified with a 183' 4" hammer throw.

"Qualifying for the NCAA East Region Championships was definitely a surprise, especially because it was in the first meet of the year," Pessala said. "I guess the goal for the rest of the season is to add a few meters to my personal best to ensure a spot at the NCAA championships."

At the Disney meet, the jumpers took home two first-place finishes. Park rode the momentum from his qualifying effort to place first in the pole vault at 16'1". Junior Will Byrd was right behind Park, tying for second in the meet. Not to be outdone, freshman Justin Frick won the high jump with a mark of 6'10".

The sprinters also had exceptional races, as sophomore Shafiq Kashmiri, freshman Andrew Usuro and senior captain Brian Shields all ran the 200 m dash in under 22 seconds. The competition was so tough, though, that they were just held out of the top 10.

Kashmiri did, however, place sixth in the 400m dash with a time of 48.20 seconds. He was accompanied by senior Richard Stewart, who ran .21 seconds faster and finished in fifth.

"The opportunity to train in Florida and compete against teams like Florida State, a perennial national contender, really shows some of the great things our team is a part of this year," said sophomore thrower Tim Lanni.

Lanni had two top-10 finishes, with a fifth-place in the discuss throw and sixth in the shot put.

On the women's side, the distance runners proved to be the team's strength, accounting for all three of their first-place finishes.

One of these winners included the All-American distance medley team which turned in a time of 11:48.30, which destroyed the competition. Maryland's runners came in a distant second at 12:13.12.

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Joining the distance medley team at the top of the standings, the 4 x 1500 m team claimed first in their race. Individually, freshman Reilly Kiernan won the top spot in the 3000 m with a time of 10:45.02.

World-class alumni

While the current Princeton runners were competing in Florida, former multi-year All-Americans Mike Spence '00 and Cack Ferrell '06 more than held their own part way across the country at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa, Kenya.

In temperatures close to 100 degrees, Ferrell raced to the top time of any American woman and came in 30th overall, finishing the 8K in 29:34.

After graduating from Princeton, Ferrell has trained with the Nike Team in Eugene, Ore.

"Apparently all her hard work has paid off," Mullen said. "I mean, that is absolutely outstanding."

Meanwhile, Spence finished 55th in the men's 12 K, top among all American runners, with a time of 39:22. As a team, the U.S. men came in 11th place and the women claimed eighth.