Track & Field: Men’s 4x400 relay sets Ivy League record at Sykes and Sabock

After a strong second-place finish at the New York Road Runners last Saturday, the women’s team followed it up with more seasonal bests, including a second-place finish in the pole vault by sophomore Tory Worthen who recorded 3.97 meters. Worthen is also a staff writer for The Daily Princetonian. Freshman Samantha Anderson was not far behind, clearing 3.60 meters and finishing in sixth place.

“This is definitely the beginning of the peak of our season right now,” Worthen said. “In workouts this week I’ve really been focusing on my speed and correlating that to my approach in pole vault. It feels like everything is coming together — all of the work and corrections I have made in my workouts are starting to show up in the meet.”

The 3000m was another solid event for the Tigers, with sophomore Abby Hewitt taking third place in 10 minutes, 2.65 seconds and freshman Marissa Cummings taking sixth with a time of 10:14.40. The sprinters also showed their strength. Junior Eileen Moran placed fourth in the 60m dash with 7.65 seconds and fifth in the 200m with 24.68 seconds. Fellow junior Danielle Glaeser recorded a personal best in the latter event, finishing in 25.72 seconds.

Princeton’s relays also finished well. The 4x400m relay of sophomore Joie Hand, Glaeser, Moran and sophomore Melissa Zajdel came in fourth, while the all-freshman distance medley relay of Molly Higgins, Jasmine Blocker, Kacie O’Neil and Theresa Devine finished third.

The men’s team also used Sykes and Sabock as an opportunity to race. A week after breaking the program record in the 4x400m, the relay team of senior Mike Eddy, freshman Tom Hopkins, sophomore Russell Dinkins and junior Austin Hollimon shattered the mark again by two seconds, setting the all-time Ivy League record at 3:9.65.

Junior Tyler King was also an event winner on Saturday. He set a new personal best in the mile with a time of 4:9.4606, just a nail faster than Penn State’s Tyler Corkedale, who finished in 4:9.4655.

Other personal records included freshman David Coneway’s 4.50 meter pole vault, freshman Omar Jarrett’s 1.98 meter high jump and junior Nilan Schnure’s 600m time of 1:22.74.

“Our training regime has stayed fairly consistent over the last week,” Dinkins said. “Although everyone’s specific training plan is different, it holds true for the entire team and has been beneficial to our team thus far.”

The distance runners who competed in Ohio also had very solid performances. Sophomore Peter Callahan won the mile with a personal-best time of 4:4.39, while senior Mark Amirault took ninth place four seconds later. Junior Donn Cabral finished eighth in the 3000m at 8:2.07.

The Tigers are now looking forward to the Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet, which will be held at Yale on Saturday. This racing opportunity will prepare them for the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships at the end of the month.