Men's Track & Field: Record-breaking year for league champions

Princeton claimed indoor victories in a dual meet at Navy and the 12-team New York Road Runners in January before participating in the Sykes & Sabock Cup at Penn State. The Tigers placed third, led by the 4x400m relay team of senior Mike Eddy, sophomore Russell Dinkins, freshman Tom Hopkins and junior Austin Hollimon. The foursome bested their program record from the previous meet and set an Ivy League record of three minutes, 9.35 seconds.

“It’s the fastest time ever turned in by an Ivy League school, so we’re very pleased by this group and what they’ve accomplished up to this point. We’re going to keep going forward; I think they’ve got bigger things in front of them still,” sprints coach Marc Anderson said in a prophetic statement after the meet.

After winning their seventh straight Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet title, the Tigers returned to the Armory to compete in the Indoor Heptagonal championships. The Tigers posted an all-time Heps high score of 215 points, defeating second-place Cornell by 43 points.

Junior Donn Cabral was named the Male Outstanding Performer of the Meet, winning both the 3000m and the 5000m, while senior George Abyad won the shot put and freshman Damon McLean became the triple jump champion. Seniors Mark Amirault and Kyle Soloff finished 1-2, respectively, in the mile, with Soloff finishing less than a second behind Amirault.

Sophomore Peter Callahan broke a 23-year-old meet record in the 1000m. Dinkins matched Callahan, setting a meet record as he won the 800m championship. Eddy took first place in the 500m, while Hollimon earned his second straight 400 m championship.

Princeton carried its momentum into the outdoor season. On April 16, Princeton traveled to the Tom Jones Invitational at the University of Florida. While the meet was not scored, the Tigers were on showcase, highlighted by the third place finish of the 4x400m relay team of Eddy, Dinkins, Hopkins and Hollimon that set an outdoor school and Ivy League record of 3:07.57.

Two weeks later, the Penn Relays featured another highlight performance by a relay team, as the 4xMile relay team of freshman Chris Bendtsen, Amirault, Cabral and Soloff won the event. The team, with Bendtsen filling in for an injured teammate, won Princeton’s first Penn Relays championship since 1931, as the Tigers’ anchor, Amirault, pushed past Indiana’s final leg and outkicked Arkansas’s anchor to bring home the championship.

“We’ve dreamed about it all year. This is a great team,” distance coach Steven Dolan said. “On paper we didn’t have the fastest times, but we have four great competitors, and it’s who wins on that day and you have to be a great competitor. Every single guy competed with their heart and we did well with this group. I’m really proud of them.”

The Tigers entered Outdoor Heptagonals on May 7 as one of the favorites, and they did not disappoint. Princeton started off strong on the first day of competition, as senior Craig Pierce won the hammer throw for Princeton’s 11th straight win in that event and Hopkins became the long jump champion. Cabral also won big for the Tigers in the only running final on Saturday, finishing first in the 10,000m.

On Sunday, Cabral earned his second Most Outstanding Performer award of the season, after claiming a victory in the steeplechase for the second straight year. Amirault also won twice, finishing first in the 1,500m and 5,000m, while Princeton swept the podium in the 400m. As the day wound to a close, the meet came down to the last event, as Cornell was nine points behind the Tigers before the 4x400m. The team of Hopkins, Kearney, Eddy and Hollimon won the event and secured the Outdoor Track and Field Championship, and with it Princeton’s triple crown for the 2010-11 year.

The Tigers have qualified 14 members of their team for the NCAA East Regional meet in Bloomington, Ind. The athletes will compete this weekend, trying to earn berths at the NCAA Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, on June 8.