Tigers continue great performance at Princeton Invitational

Following a spectacular weekend where the men’s and women’s track and field teams completed a sweep of the Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet, both teams continued their fine form this weekend by combining to win nine events, with the men’s team claiming six events and the women’s team bringing home three events.

In the field events, the men’s team dominated the shot put, as three Tigers finished in the top four and four in the top seven. Leading the field was sophomore Christopher Cook, who completed a toss of 17.86m, besting runner-up and freshman teammate Mitchel Charles, who recorded a 17.18m toss. Senior Scott Rushton came fourth with a toss of 16.76m and senior Stephen Soerens rounded out the field with a 14.86m mark.

Freshman August Kiles claimed the pole vault event by clearing the 4.80m mark, in an event where star man senior Adam Bragg failed to clear the 5.18 mark all three times, a mark which would have easily brought him a victory. Princeton had success in the other jump events too: the Tigers had another 1-2-4 finish in the long jump, with senior Tumi Akinlawon winning the event with a 6.95m jump, followed by sophomore Victor Du with a mark of 6.57m and junior Bryan Oslin with a jump of 6.41m. Although there was no victory in the high jump, sophomore Xavier Bledsoe and freshman Colin Reilly combined for a 2-3 finish, as Bledsoe broke the 2.00m mark, while Reilly managed 1.96m.

The running events brought similar success, especially sophomore Brent Albertson. The Illinois native had a fantastic day, claiming the 200m event with a 22.39 mark before joining his teammates for another victory in the 4x400m as Albertson along with sophomore Francesco Di Caprio and freshman tandem Mike Seaton and Josh Ingalls combined for a 3:25.92 mark that just edged out on their opponents.

Ingalls also had a successful day himself, claiming the 500m event with a 1:05.58 mark in an event that three other Tigers finished between fourth and sixth. There were other podium finishes from sophomore Stephen Rossettie, who came third in the 1000m, and Di Caprio, who took third in the 400m with a 52.36 mark.

The women’s team managed to claim victory in three events, once again headlined by junior Julia Ratcliffe, as she claimed the weight throw with a toss of 19.63m. She blew away the field, as her runner-up finished with 18.57m. Freshman Kennedy O’Dell joined her with a fourth place finish with a throw of 15.79m.

Sophomore Allison Harris continued her good form on the season, winning the pole vault again by clearing 3.70m. There was more success for the Tigers in the running event, as sophomore and recent on-tap interviewee Rachael Chacko headlined a 1-3-4 finish in the 800m with a time of 2:15.64, followed by senior Rachel Skokowski, who finished third and freshman Melinda Renuart, who finished fourth.

After an encouraging weekend, the Tigers will look forward to the Heptagonals this upcoming weekend, which will be held in Cambridge, Mass. over Saturday and Sunday.