Nightingale nearly bests school record

The concept of rest is foreign to the men's and women's track and field teams. After two consecutive seasons of intense competition — from fall cross country to winter indoor events — the Tigers continue to achieve top performances early in the outdoor track season.

The performance of junior Dave Nightingale highlighted a weekend where the Tiger teams were scattered across the country. The indoor All-American missed the school record in the 5,000 m by under a second at the prestigious Mt. SAC relays in California.

While Nightingale and the distance men competed in California, the sprint and field men traveled to Penn for a quad meet, and the women hosted a tri-meet with Penn and Yale.

Leaving their teammates behind on the East Coast, the distance men flew across the country this past weekend to compete in Walnut, Calif., right outside Los Angeles. Traditionally, the annual invitational attracts the top collegiate and North American professional distance runners.

The Mt. SAC relays are hosted by Mt. San Antonio College, with elite runners journeying from Mexico, Ireland, China and Australia to take on America's best — collegiate or otherwise.

The meet gives the Tigers more than just an opportunity to watch and compete against some of the world's best in their sport. California's weather is ideal for distance running, giving the athletes a chance to compete in the best conditions at a time when the weather in the Northeast is far from runner-friendly.

"Because of the talented field, weather conditions and time of the year, it's the perfect environment for running some fast distance races," Nightingale said. "It's a great opportunity to compete against elite collegiate runners and to also get in a race with some famous professional runners. My 5K race in particular featured several Olympians."

The men's distance team succeeded in making the best of the invitational, with Nightingale leading the charge. Nightingale finished 21st overall, and eighth among collegiate finishers. His time of 13 minutes, 49.90 seconds just missed All-American Paul Morrison '02's school record of 13:49.39, set in 2000.

Another notable performance for Princeton was sophomore Michael Maag's third-place finish in the 5000 m university/open race, with a time of 14:05.97. Juniors Frank Tinney and James O'Toole also finished the 5,000 m in under 15 minutes, while junior Justin Pines and senior Paul Rosa competed in the 10,000 m, clocking in at 29:54.96 and 30:24.21, respectively.

While the distance runners enjoyed the warm weather, many of the men's sprinters and field athletes traveled to Penn's Franklin Stadium for the Quad meet, a chance to adjust to the Penn field before the prestigious Penn Relays in two weeks. Additionally, the meet paired the Tigers' sprinters against the Quakers, some of the strongest short-distance runners in the Ivy League.

"Penn is noteworthy for their sprints, so for sprinters like me, Penn poses a real challenge," sophomore Shafiq Kashmiri said. "Since the outdoor season is relatively short, with few races to compete, every meet is important in terms of making the Heptagonals team and qualifying for the IC4As [Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America Outdoor Track Championships] and NCAA Regionals. It was another opportunity to push for a good result to make the team."

Despite Penn's sprinting strength, the Tigers put up a good fight, with senior Brian Shields opening the Quad meet with third place finishes in both the 100 m and 200 m dashes. But it was the 400 m race that highlighted Princeton's strength on the track. Princeton took the top-four spots in the 400 m, led by senior Richard Stewart's first place time of 48.24 seconds. Kashmiri, sophomore Matt Brock and freshman Brian Li-A-Ping followed to complete the 1-2-3-4 sweep. The Tigers returned later in the meet to win the 4x400 relay.

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In Philadelphia, Princeton also continued its season domination of the field events. Freshman Justin Frick earned a qualification to NCAA Regionals with his first-place finish in the high jump at 2.10 meters. Tigers won several other titles, including freshman Scott Henkelman in the long jump, junior Nathan Crumpton in the triple jump and the top-two places in both the shot put and hammer throw.

The Princeton women, meanwhile, competed together at home over the weekend, placing second to Penn in an Ivy showdown that also included Yale. The Tigers won six titles at the tri-meet, led by sophomore Agatha Offorjebe, who was the star of the meet, winning the 200 and 400 m dashes. Of the 11 runners in the 200 m, Offorjebe was the only one to break the 25-second mark, finishing in a time of 24.99.

The team's strong freshman duo once again dominated the distance events. Liz Costello and Christy Johnson finished 1-2 in the 1,500 m race, with Costello finishing first in 4:26.45 and Johnson right behind in 4:28.79.

In the field, Princeton won two events, with junior Emma Harper's hammer throw and sophomore Christina Argyos's strong high-jump performance. Freshman Reilly Kiernan won the 3000 m steeplechase in 10:33.22, with sophomore Megan Brandeland finishing second.

The men's and women's teams will reunite this weekend to host the Larry Ellis Invitational. The meet is one of the few opportunities remaining for Tigers to race before the Heptagonal Championships during the first weekend of May.