Track & Field: Tigers sweep Heps

For the first time in over a decade, both the men’s and women’s track and field teams came home from the indoor Heptagonal Championships with first-place trophies. The teams, which last swept titles in 1998, did so in convincing fashion this year. The men earned 181 points, besting two-time defending champion Cornell, who came in second with 149 points. The women won 125 points to defeat second-place Columbia, who had 110 points.

Leading the charge for the men, who won their last title in 2007, was none other than sophomore Austin Hollimon, who has won every race he has entered this year. This time, Hollimon stayed true to form, capturing the 400m in a stunning 47.42 seconds, the second-fastest time ever at Heps. The fastest time of 46.34 seconds was run by Columbia’s Erison Hurtault, a future Olympian, in 2007.

Hollimon, along with junior Mike Eddy, sophomore Ricky Kearney and freshman Sebastian Steffen, also guided the 4x400m relay team to victory in 3 minutes, 15.77 seconds, finishing two seconds ahead of second-place Cornell.

Hollimon was only one of a number of standout athletes for a determined Tiger squad. On the track, sophomore Trevor Van Ackeren captured the mile in 4:08.07, outpacing a field in which six runners finished under 4:15. Van Ackeren, who only placed third in preliminaries, beat Charles Hatch of Cornell by .37 seconds in a photo finish in the finals.

In another photo finish, freshman Peter Callahan held off heavily favored Nick Wade of Cornell by .22 seconds to take the 800m in 1:52.18.

Freshman Russell Dinkins held off Eddy, the defending champion, in the 500m. Both runners finished more than one second ahead of the rest of the field, but it was the freshman who walked away with the title in 1:02.77.

Elsewhere, the squad recorded a victory in the 4x800m relay and second place in the distance medley relay.

A hard-working field squad was instrumental in the team’s success, winning four events of a possible six.

For the women’s team, the competition was tight throughout. The Tigers finished only 15 points ahead of their closest competition, Columbia, and 29 points ahead of third-place Cornell.

“We knew going into the meet that it was going to be really close between us, Cornell and Columbia,” senior Reilly Kiernan said. “We knew we really had to step it up and get points wherever we could.”

Kiernan brought the Tigers victory in the 5,000m with a time deep within the NCAA provisional qualifying range. Her closest competitor was almost nine seconds behind. Kiernan is also a former associate editor for news for The Daily Princetonian.

“This weekend went as well as I could have hoped personally,” Kiernan said. “I’m excited about having momentum going into the rest of the season.”

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

Victory on Sunday was a team effort, though, with victories coming across the board.

“In every different event, people got pumped up,” Kiernan said. “People really supported each other. It was a good team effort.”

Junior Ashley Higginson gave a strong performance in the mile, earning first place and an NCAA provisional qualifying time. Sophomore Alex Banfich followed two seconds behind Higginson for a solid second-place in front of Columbia.

Princeton clinched a close victory in front of the Big Red in the 4x800m relay. The race was run by freshman Greta Feldman, freshman Alexis Mikaelian, junior Brooke Russell and junior Libby Bliss.

On the field, freshman Tory Worthen brought first place to the Tigers in the pole vault. Junior KC Wade finished in a strong second behind Columbia in the high jump.

Junior thrower Thanithia Billings improved Princeton’s standing with a victory in the weight throw and a third-place finish in the shot put. Junior thrower Emma Ruggiero followed Billings’ performance in the weight throw by narrowly following Columbia’s second place.