Tinney notches personal best in 5,000m

Three thousand miles away, senior distance runner Frank Tinney was preparing to do both.

Tinney ran the 5,000m at the Mt. San Antonio College (SAC) Invitational in Sacramento, Calif. His personal record of 13 minutes, 55.21 seconds, which is 11 seconds under his previous personal best, not only qualified him for the NCAA regionals, but was also one of the fastest times in Princeton history.

“It’s a big breakthrough for Frank,” head coach Fred Samara said. “Mt. SAC is a national elite competition, and he was right up there with the nation’s best. He’s healthy now and starting to believe in himself.”

Tinney spent the indoor season recovering from an injury that required surgery, but he never lost sight of his goal to break 14 minutes in the 5,000m. After building up an aerobic base in the early part of the season, he was ready to compete not only against the other top runners, but also against himself.

“My goal for this race was just to get under 14 minutes, as that is one of the big barriers in college running,” Tinney said. “It is something that I have wanted to do since I started running, and it was really amazing to finally accomplish that goal.”

Junior distance runner Jolee VanLeuven represented the women’s track team in California and turned in a ninth-place finish in the 10,000m with a time of 34:15.61. VanLeuven was joined by former teammate Cack Ferrell ’06, who turned in a personal record in the 5,000m to take seventh place.

Back at Princeton, senior distance runner Dave Nightingale also returned to the track after being plagued by injury. He came in sixth place in the 1,500m run with an NCAA qualifying time of 3:45.70.

“This race definitely helped me gain confidence, and it also showed that my fitness level is a little better than I had expected,” Nightingale said.

Samara also said he thinks Nightingale’s attitude helped him post such a strong time.

“David is truly amazing. He has had a very injury-ridden season but is so strong mentally and has tremendous confidence in his ability to run with anyone,” Samara said.

The team’s distance runners weren’t the only top performers at the weekend’s meet. Two hammer throwers, junior Alex Pessala and freshman Craig Pearce, also qualified for the NCAA regionals. In his first meet after being sidelined with a back injury, Pessala crushed his personal record by nearly three feet, recording a throw of 202 feet, one inch. This mark was the second-best toss among collegiate competitors.

“Throwing a personal best is a huge confidence boost that will hopefully translate into even better throws in the upcoming weeks,” Pessala said of his performance. “The rest was a blessing in disguise.”

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Samara said that the time off benefited Pessala and promised that “we will see a new school record in the hammer” if he can make a few corrections.

Senior triple jumper Nick Crumpton, who is also a photographer for The Daily Princetonian, rounded out the weekend’s NCAA regional qualifiers. His jump of 49’4.25” earned him second at the meet.

Other notable performers include freshman long jumper Dion Lehman, who missed qualifying for the NCAA regionals by only one-and-a-half inches. His jump of 23’11.5” is the longest jump in the Ivy League this year. Sophomore Jeff Carbonella placed first in the 800m with a time of 1:53.85, leading a trio of Tigers finishing in the top four in the event. Freshman George Abyad’s discus toss of 156’10” was the second farthest among collegiate competitors, while freshman Mike Eddy’s 400m time of 48.04 earned him fourth overall.

On the women’s side, junior pole vaulter Jessica Kloss took first in her event after clearing 12’03”. Freshman KC Wade, who is also a staff writer for the ‘Prince,’ won the decathlon with 3,933 points. Senior captain Emma Harper’s hammer throw of 168’02” was third best among collegiate competitors, while junior Emma Giunipero earned third in the discus with a distance of 144’06”.

Freshman Lauren Barber placed second in the 100m hurdles with a time of 14.24, and junior Agatha Offorjebe placed fourth in the 400m run with a time of 56.35. In what was perhaps the surprise of the day on the track, junior Alexe Smith placed second in the 3,000m run with a time of 10:53.25, despite it being her first time to ever run the race.

The large setting of the Larry Ellis Invitational is a preview of what the Tigers can expect this coming weekend at the Penn Relays, which features athletes from more than 60 countries around the world. The Penn Relays kick off the home stretch for Princeton’s season, all leading up to the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships at Yale on May 10 and 11.