Liu's leap enough for Heps

The Tigers finished with a final score of 114, seven points ahead of second-place Brown. The Orange and Black went into the second day of the meet closely trailing first-place home team Cornell. It was not until the 4x800m relay that the Tigers finally took the lead, and thanks to a second-place jump by Liu, they never relinquished the top spot.

In the 4x800, the trio of seniors Heather Iatauro, Liz Bergold and Karen Aherne put the team in a good position after the first three legs, with sophomore anchor Liz Costello bringing it home. The relay team finished with a time of eight minutes, 55.18 seconds, more than three seconds ahead of second-place Cornell.

Liu put the nail in the coffin with her second-place jump of 39 feet, seven inches. Her eight points in the event were enough to offset Brown’s seven points, ensuring a Princeton victory.

“I felt that I was jumping for the team, and I felt the key to my success as well as the team’s success was the fact that there was so much team spirit in the event,” Liu said.

It was an important day for the freshman class, as Liu’s classmate Isabell Von Loga also played a big part in the Heps victory. Her shot put throw of 51’5” bested the previous meet record, set in 2000 by Brown’s Amber Knighten.

“This was the most awesome competition that I’ve ever been a part of with the team cheering like crazy,” Von Loga said. “After my last throw the team was screaming so loud. It was a great day overall, I definitely can’t complain.”

For the seniors, there was a mood of redemption after winning the meet for the first time in their Princeton careers.

“A lot of players performed their best ever, which was key to winning the meet,” Bergold said. “To finally win senior year after coming in seventh freshman year was great. It was clear that everyone was excited.”

“We were very excited at the end, and there was an element of surprise in there because we didn’t know if we had won or came in second to Brown,” senior captain Emma Harper said. “My freshman year we came in seventh, my sophomore year we came in fifth, my junior year we came in fourth, and so to have such a jump in my senior year was a great feeling.”

The distance runners were also outstanding in the meet. In addition to her great 4x800 performance, Costello won the mile in 4:53.18. Freshman Sarah Cummings took first in the 5,000-meter run with 16:47.83, and freshman Lauren Barber won the 60-meter hurdles in 8.77 seconds.

“The good thing about the meet today was that we had people from all different events step up,” Harper said.

The men, who were leading after day one of the competition, finished a strong second to a dominant Cornell team.

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

Junior Duane Hynes and senior Will Byrd created a lot of excitement in the meet with their race to win the men’s heptathlon. Hynes ended up edging his teammate by only 33 points.

Hynes had a great day in the heptathlon events, winning the 60-meter dash in a time of 7.16 seconds, the high jump with a jump of 6’7” and the long jump in 22’7”.

Byrd’s top event was the pole vault, which he won by clearing 16’.75”.

Sophomore Justin Frick won the final high jump competition, clearing the bar at 7’.25”.

Junior distance runner Michael Maag had a strong performance in the 3,000-meter race, finishing first in a time of 8:31.59. He also came in third in the mile in a strong field of runners. Freshman Mike Eddy won the 500-meter race in 1:03.82.