Princeton cruises in Fordham Invitational

Princeton's track and field teams have had a good start to 2008. On Friday, the women's team traveled to New York City for the Fordham Invitational, claiming the team title in a meet featuring 15 schools. Following its strong performance Dec. 8 in the New Year Invitational, the women won four events and finished second in seven others, accumulating 127 points in total. Princeton barely edged out second-place Rutgers, claiming the victory by half a point.

"To be honest, I didn't even know the results until the next day," sophomore Alexa Glencer said. "I wasn't surprised that we had won, but I was surprised by how close it was."

Glencer took first in the 3,000-meter run by finishing in 10 minutes, 4.13 seconds, while senior teammate Heather Iatauro followed in second place with a time of 10:09.

"The competition was relatively weak in the distance events, particularly the 3K," Glencer said. "Heather and I were able to run together, and she pulled me along for the first mile, and I took the lead during the final 1,200 meters."

In the pole vault, junior Jess Kloss and senior Courtney Regan cleared the winning height of 11 feet, 5.75 inches, tying for the top spot, while sophomore Aundeah Kearney won the long jump with a leap of 17' 9.75".

"In the long jump particularly, the competition did not accurately represent what we'll be up against later in the season, but it was enough to assess how well we trained and kept in shape over the break," Kearney said. "Above all, I think it helped us see what we each need to work on until [Heptagonals]."

This year's track team boasts a very strong returning group of athletes, complemented by one of the most highly touted recruiting classes in school history. Freshman Bianca Mathabane contributed in a huge way to the victory by winning the 60-meter hurdles in 8.84 seconds.

"I was just happy I finished the race in the prelims. I knocked the first hurdle, which is a bad idea when the race only has five hurdles and is over in nine seconds," Mathabane said.

"The team looks fantastic across the board, from field events to sprints to distance," Glencer said. "We should definitely be able to excel."

On Saturday, the men's track team reported an equally strong performance at the Penn State Relays, highlighted by numerous record-breaking performances. Sophomores Justin Frick and Ian Fox both cleared 7' .25" in the high jump, earning themselves the meet record as well as provisional qualifying heights for March's NCAA Championship Meet.

"The whole place was packed for the meet, and they got the slow clap going for the high jump," Fox said. "It definitely helped to have everybody really excited and riled up."

In the 1,000-meter run, senior Kurt Kuehne took first place with a 2:25.37 finish, beating his closest opponent by nearly two seconds and establishing a new personal best. Sophomore Ben White completed the mile run in 4:15.51, winning the event by a mere 0.03 seconds. Junior Alex Pessala won the weight throw with a distance of 63' 2".

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

"Kurt's 1,000-meter run was incredible to watch," White said. "One runner took [it] out very fast from the gun and spread out the field. Kurt stayed with the lead chase pack and began moving up and closed in on the leader during the last two laps. It was an exciting finish when he passed the leader on the last straightaway for the win."

Despite both team's strong showings, many athletes noted that the Heptagonal Championships — the true challenge — is still far away. Undoubtedly, the competition will stiffen as the season progresses, but the Tigers still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

"We haven't even raced a lot of our top guys yet on the distance team, but we're still managing to pull out wins and high [finishes] against solid competition," White said.