Track & Field: Princeton plays host to Elite Meet

“For our team to succeed this weekend, everyone needs to be focused on their event,” senior thrower Alex Pessala said. “As the championship season approaches, everyone needs to be able to prepare and compete at the highest level consistently.”

The men are coming off a solid showing in the Penn Relays, where they were paced by their throwers. Sophomore George Abyad finished fifth in the Eastern shot put at 16.53 meters and fourth in the college discus with a 50.93-meter attempt. Pessala finished fourth in the championship hammer throw at 62.12 meters, while sophomore Craig Pearce finished 11th with a 54.67-meter throw.

The women also had a solid weekend at both the Penn Relays and The College of New Jersey Invitational. Sophomore Thanithia Billings won the hammer throw at the invitational with a 44.16 meter throw, while freshman Alyssa Pehmoeller finished fourth with a 42.79 meter throw.

Sophomore KC Wade finished third in the high jump, recording a 1.66-meter jump. Freshman Michelle Yousefian finished fifth in the 800m with a time of 2:20.65, while freshmen Danielle Glaeser and Jessica Johnson finished in the top 10 in the 200m and 400m runs, respectively. Wade is a former staff writer for The Daily Princetonian.

At the Elite Meet, the Tigers will need to continue their recent success. Princeton seeks not only to position itself for an Ivy League title, but also to continue qualifying athletes for the NCAA Regionals.

“As the season hits the home stretch, our team is looking to do as well as possible in all the postseason track meets,” Pessala said. “Obviously winning an Ivy League title is desired, but we also want to send 20 or more guys to the NCAA Regionals and have some All-Americans at the NCAA nationals.”

Twelve members of the men’s team and four members of the women’s team have already qualified for NCAA Regionals, but the job is far from finished. The men’s qualifiers are junior Eric Plummer in the shot put, Abyad in the discus, Pessala, Pearce and junior Joel Karacozoff in the hammer throw, junior Ian Fox in the high jump, freshman Dave Slovenski and junior Chard Faulkner in the pole vault, freshman Austin Hollimon and sophomore Mike Eddy in the 400m run, senior Michael Maag in the 1,500m run and freshman Trevor Van Ackeren in the steeplechase.

For the women, the qualifiers are senior Jessica Kloss in the pole vault, freshman Alex Banfich in the 5,000m run and junior Reilly Kiernan and sophomore Ashley Higginson in the 5,000m and steeplechase. Kiernan is an associate editor for news at the ‘Prince.’

Pessala said he recognizes what he needs to do to succeed this weekend at Heps.

“Personally, my focus for the remaining meets will shift towards fine-tuning the throw,” Pessala said. “Because we taper off the lifting, I really won’t be getting any faster or stronger for the next month, but I need to be able to perfect the small technical flaws, which will ultimately lead to the highest results.