Kashmiri, Offorjebe pace team

The men's and women's track and field teams kicked off their indoor seasons at the New Year Invitational on Saturday at Jadwin Gym. The meet, though not scored as a team event, was highlighted by several strong individual performances against athletes from Penn, Rider, Rutgers, Monmouth, West Chester, Adelphi and TCNJ.

On the women's side, junior Agatha Offorjebe added another win to her resume, taking the 300-meter dash by three-quarters of a second. Freshmen Lauren Barber and Bianca Mathabane took the No. 1 and No. 2 spots in the 60-meter hurdles, with both debutantes jumping up spots between the preliminary and the finals. Not to be undone by the underclassmen, seniors Liz Bergold and Karen Aherne each finished under three minutes to take the top two spots in the 1000-meter run.

In the field, freshman Isabell von Loga grabbed the top spot in the shotput with a throw of 49 feet, 10.5 inches — over five feet farther than her nearest competitor — while freshman Emma Ruggiero and senior Emma Harper took second and third in the weight throw. Senior Marta Pardo earned the top spot in the long jump, while freshman Bianca Williams won with a foot to spare in the triple jump. Junior Jessica Kloss and senior Courtney Regan took second and third in the pole vault.

Princeton's men had several equally impressive results. Junior Shafiq Kashmiri and sophomore Andrew Usoro grabbed first and second in both the 60-meter dash and the 300-meter dash. Kashmiri finished in 6.95 seconds in the former and 34.41 seconds in the latter, while Usoro posted times of 7.00 and 35.25. Junior Ian Thomson also took third in the 300-meter dash.

Three of the Tigers' other first-place finishes came in the jumping events. Senior long jumper Nathan Crumpton narrowly beat out teammate and sophomore Scott Henkelman's third-place 6.98 meter finish — Crumpton's final distance was 7.02 meters.

One of the most outstanding performances by a Tiger jumper came from freshman Garner McCloud, who finished first in the men's triple jump with a distance of 14.57 meters.

Sophomore Justin Frick took first in the men's high jump event — his 2.14 meter jump was closely followed by second-place finisher and fellow sophomore Ian Fox's personal-best 2.10 meter result.

Meanwhile, freshman Mike Eddy debuted with a second-place 1:05.12 in the 500-meter dash. In the same race, senior Kurt Kuehne took fourth place in 1:06.08 seconds.

Junior Chris Vasich also achieved a top-five finish for Princeton, coming in fourth in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.38 seconds.

The Tigers also competed in several team events. Among Princeton's notable finishes, several top Tigers sprinters — Kashmiri, juniors Duane Hynes and Collin Plummer and senior Bryant Blount — teamed for a second-place 3:23.67 in the 4x400 relay.

In the field, junior Alex Pessala took first in the men's weight throw. Pessala barely edged out teammate and freshman Craig Pearce, who took second with an impressive effort. Pessala and Pearce were the only two competitors with throws over 18 meters, with final results of 18.15 and 18.08 meters, respectively.

In the men's shotput, junior Tim Lanni and freshman George Abyad rounded out the top five with throws of 15.18 and 15.15 meters.

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Neither the men's nor the women's teams compete again until next year. The women compete in the Fordham Invitational in New York City on Jan. 11, while the men take on Navy at home on Jan. 6.