Track & Field: Tigers dominate foes at Navy Quad Meet

At the Navy Quad Meet Saturday, the men’s track and field team dominated competitors Penn, Navy, American and Virginia Commonwealth. The Tigers earned 10 first-place finishes on the day while placing in the top three in every field event. In the final tally, Princeton finished with 222 points to second-place Penn’s 100.

Senior Chris Vasich posted a time of 8.44 seconds to take first in the 60-meter hurdles, an event in which sophomore Adam Thayer finished fifth. In the 200-meter sprint, senior Shafiq Kashmiri was the top Tiger, with a fourth-place time of 22.60 seconds.

Freshman Austin Holliman gave one of the top performances on the sprint squad with an impressive 48.58-second 400-meter dash, taking first in the event. Fellow rookie Rickey Kearney finished fourth, while senior Ian Thomson took fifth place. Sophomore Mike Eddy also emerged victorious in the 500-meter dash, finishing in one minute, 4.84 seconds.

Princeton’s middle-distance runners arguably performed even better. Sophomore Kyle Soloff and freshman Trevor Van Ackeren won the 1,000-meter and one-mile races, respectively. Van Ackeren’s winning time was 4:14.76.

The 4x400 relay saw another Tiger victory, and Princeton later added a second-place finish in the distance medley relay.

The Tigers’ field athletes earned a top-finish in every event, led by the shot-putters, who demonstrated their depth Saturday by taking the top three spots. Junior Eric Plummer’s 17.77-meter throw earned him top billing. Freshman Patrick Park and senior Tim Lanni rounded out the top three with throws of 15.04 and 14.84, respectively.

Sophomore Craig Pearce finished first in the weight throw with an 18.41-meter toss, while senior Alex Pessala finished in third place.

Princeton athletes also excelled in the pole vault, with freshman David Slovenski recording a freshman-record jump of 5.12 meters and fellow freshman Derek Hynes taking second with a 4.65-meter jump.

The Tigers took first and second in the high jump as well. Junior Ian Fox and freshman Isaac Serwanga finished first and second with jumps of 2.04 and 1.99 meters, respectively.

Senior Duane Hynes finished second in the long jump, and sophomore Dion Lehman earned third.

The women’s track and field team competed one day earlier at the Metropolitan Coaches Invitational in New York. Senior Jessica Kloss and sophomore Thanithia Billings both earned first-place finishes.

The Metropolitan Coaches Invitational is a large event, with 17 NCAA teams competing alongside several club teams.

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Kloss vaulted 3.60, winning her event. Freshmen Bianca Reo and Lydia Arias showed that Princeton’s future in field events will likely be as bright as its present, taking third and fourth place.

Billings, meanwhile, won the shot put by recording a 13.39-meter throw. Freshman Alyssa Pehmoeller earned a second-place finish for her 13.52-meter weight throw, while junior Aundeah Kearney took third in the long jump. Kearney’s third-place distance was 5.41 meters.

In the high jump, junior Liz Stevens and sophomore KC Wade both jumped 1.55 meters, while sophomore Tiffany Liu finished seventh in the triple jump at 11.14 meters. Wade is also a staff writer for The Daily Princetonian.

Princeton also showcased its underclassmen in the sprint events. Freshman Eileen Moran ran a 7.98-second 60-meter dash for fifth place, and classmate Danielle Glaeser took fourth in the 400-meter dash with a 58.43-second run.

The Tigers’ top finish on the track came in the 1,600-meter sprint relay. Moran, Glaeser, freshman Sarah Houtmann and senior Agatha Offorjebe clocked a 4:11.17 to finish behind a club team from New York.

Sophomore Lauren Barber clocked a 9.27 in the 60-meter hurdles finals to take fifth place.

In the 600-meter and one-mile events, senior Melissa Swigert and sophomore Libby Bliss finished fifth and sixth with times of 1:36.92 and 1:37.22 respectively.