Track & Field: McLean wins triple jump at Penn Relays

“Saturday was definitely one of the better days in my career,” McLean said. “I was in the zone. I was actually surprised that I could keep my focus with such a big crowd and competition.”

McLean’s performance ended a long drought of triple jump champions for the Ivy League — the last win dating back to 1928. History aside, McLean was simply excited to earn the victory, and the confidence that came with it.

“I’m from Jamaica, and the Penn Relays is always a big event for us and special to me. This has really been a dream come true for me, to finally win at Penn,” McLean said. “At this point in the season, I am healthy, and that’s important. There are good things to come.”

While McLean was the only Tiger to win at the Relays over the weekend, there was no shortage of success on the track from Princeton, as relay squads broke records left and right.

Running the Championship of America 4x800m on Saturday, the team of junior Kacie O’Neil, sophomore Cecilia Barowski and seniors Alexis Mikaelian and co-captain Greta Feldman destroyed both school and Ivy League records.

Getting Princeton off to a good start in one of the deepest and most competitive events of the meet, O’Neil split 2:09.28 and handed off to Feldman right in the mix. Accelerating away in pursuit of the leaders, Feldman blazed a 2:03.15 — one of her fastest times ever.

Well ahead of record pace, Feldman gave the baton to Barowski. Since she only started to compete collegiately in the 800 this year, Barowski continued to improve as she raced to a 2:07.55 split. Anchoring the relay, Mikaelian sealed the deal with a quick 2:07.29, stopping the clock at 8:27.26. This time beat the school record of 8:38.05 and took down the Ivy League record of 8:35.70 set by Cornell in 2005 — a squad anchored by current Olympian Morgan Uceny.

“Getting the record was definitely on our minds coming into this year. First and foremost, we just wanted to run as fast as possible, and hopefully with that would come the record,” Feldman said. “We went into the race all serious, but it ended up being so much fun.”

While on paper the Tigers do have one of the fastest squads of middle distance women ever to pass through the program, the performance was a whole level higher than expected.

“Looking at what we can all run individually, putting that together, it was clear that we could definitely have a shot at the record,” Feldman said. “We ended up shattering it. Finishing and looking at the scoreboard, I thought, ‘No, that can’t be right.’”

Following up on the women’s success just 30 minutes later, the men took to the track for the Championship of America 4x800. Despite competing without some of the usual all-stars such as seniors Russell Dinkins and Peter Callahan, the Tigers were more than prepared to race fast and compete. Stepping up to the occasion, the team of seniors Michael Palmisano and Nathan Mathabane, junior Michael Williams and sophomore Bradley Paternostro combined to erase a 45-year-old school record. Finishing in 7:21.62, they clipped the old record of 7:22.46 set in 1968 by nearly a second.

“We were so excited going into the 4x800. We had the record on our mind, and we knew that we had a legitimate shot at beating it,” Paternostro said. “Running that time without the usual people just shows how much depth we have.”

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In a breakout performance, Mathabane had one of the best races of his career, dipping under 1:50 to split 1:49.41 for the second leg. After being sidelined with an injury for much of his collegiate career, Mathabane has come a long way on his road back. His split on Saturday was one of his fastest times ever.

Anchoring the Tigers, Paternostro continued his progression into becoming one of the league’s top middle distance runners. Getting out hard over the first lap, Paternostro moved up in the field. Kicking hard over the final 200m, Paternostro laid it all out on the track as he split 1:48.90 to bring the team into fifth place overall and grab the school record. The relay’s time also ranks fifth-best in conference history.

“I love the Penn Relays — the whole atmosphere. It’s tough though, since sometimes getting too excited can mess up your tactics,” Paternostro said. “As the anchor, I knew I just had to put the record out of my mind and focus on the racing at hand. In the end, I just had to do what I needed to do — run fast and beat some people.”

For the women, the 4x800m Ivy League record could almost be considered a victory lap, as earlier on in the meet on Thursday they set a school record in the Distance Medley Relay.

Leading off in the 1200m leg, junior Molly Higgins got the Tigers out to a fast start as she fought hard to hand off in 3:24.8. Barowski kept Princeton in the mix as she sprinted around the track for the 400m leg, running 54.3 seconds — one of the fastest splits of the race. Keeping things rolling, O’Neil found a groove in her 800m leg, running 2:08.8. Anchoring the race, Feldman took care of the 1600m leg as she tried to close on the leaders, splitting 4:42.2 to cross the line in 11:10.13 to finish fourth overall. The time broke the previous program best of 11:12.53 set in 2006.

While Princeton has had success in the distance events at the Penn Relays before, perhaps no team turned more heads than Princeton in the 4x400m relay — an event traditionally dominated by sprinting powerhouses from southern state schools.

Running 3:07.99 to win the Heptagonals heat of the 4x400m, the relay of junior co-captain Tom Hopkins, seniors Austin Hollimon and Dinkins and sophomore Daniel McCord qualified for the championship race the next day, a feat rarely achieved by Ivy League schools.

“No one expects Princeton to have four good 400m runners. We take pride in having people look at us saying, ‘Who are these kids?’ and then going out there and showing people how good we are,” Hollimon said. “I think we all realize that we’re hungry, we have the talent, we can show people that we can compete.”

Competing against the likes of Texas A&M, a perennial national title contender, the Tigers refused to be intimidated, running 3:06.26 to finish fifth, narrowly missing fourth. The time is the second best in Ivy League history.

“I compare it to walking into Cottage. We’re big guys, but you walk in and look down the line, and you see these guys who are just as tall and strong, if not stronger, as we were,” Hollimon said. “We were the only school north of the Mason-Dixon line to be invited to that race. But we believed that we belonged.”

The Penn Relays were a final tune-up for the Tigers before the Ivy League Championships this Saturday and Sunday at home at Weaver Stadium.