Track & Field: Runners dominate meets at home, in N.Y.

Sophomore Imani Oliver grabbed the attention of the day as she bounded to a new school record in the triple jump in her second meet of the year. Hitting just under 12 meters on her first five attempts, Oliver finally let loose the best indoor leap of her collegiate career on her last attempt, reaching 12.44 meters (40 feet, 9.75 inches). The effort broke the 22-year-old record set by Nicole Springer ’92 of 40 feet, 9 inches.

Senior co-captain Eileen Moran also got 2012 off to a rolling start. Moran won both the 60- and 200-meter events in 7.71 and 25.18 seconds, respectively. Following up the solid performances of their teammates, Princeton’s middle distance and distance runners broke out of the gates in their first competition since the cross country season, sweeping the top two spots in every event of at least 500 meters.

“We saw a lot of really great performances out there,” junior middle distance runner Alexis Mikaelian said. “For me, just going in and lacing up my spikes again, getting back in touch with speed work, was important going into the rest of the season.”

Sophomore Kristin Smoot and Mikaelian placed first and second in the 1000m, both running personal bests. Senior co-captain Alex Banfich was the only runner of the day to break five minutes for the mile, winning in 4 minutes, 53.35 seconds. The Tigers took the top four places in the 3000m, as junior Mel Newbery won in a personal best time of 9:40.95.

The Princeton freshmen continued to impress, as Cecilia Barowski won the 500m in 1:14.53 seconds, and fellow rookies Andrea Keklak and Kim Mackay took second and third behind junior Greta Feldman in a close 800-meter race. Nonny Okwelogu placed third in the shot put with a throw if 39 feet, 10 inches.

Coming off of a strong win at Navy the week before, the men’s track team continued to put the pieces together in New York Saturday night. Competing against a number of diverse Northeast teams in the Saturday Night at The Armory event, the Tigers defeated 14 other squads, winning with 134 points.

Following up on a number of strong opening times last weekend, Princeton’s distance runners pounded the competition, as they placed second through ninth out of 33 runners in the mile and grabbed the top spots in the 1000m and 3000m.

Running just behind Iona’s All-America Leonard Korir, junior Peter Callahan took second in the mile in 4:03.76. Senior Joe Stilin came in third in 4:04.37. Sophomore Chris Bendtsen put up a fast time of 8:12.28 seconds to win the 3000m, with classmates Alejandro Arroyo-Yamin and Jonathan Vitez placing second and third.

Sophomore sprinter Tom Hopkins continued to propel his indoor season forward, as he won the 60m hurdles and came back to take second in the 400m. Likewise, senior co-captain Dave Slovenski continued his string of stellar perfomances, clearing 5.15 meters in the pole vault.

Both teams were encouraged by their performances, especially after coming off a long vacation and a hard finals period.

“We got what we wanted out of this weekend,” Mikaelian said.

The men and women have a two-week break until they compete at the second Saturday Night at The Armory on Jan. 28.