Tigers claw their way to the top at Ivy League Championships

The Tigers’ success this season continued once more as both the men’s and women’s team impressed at the 2015 Ivy League Indoor Heptagonals, hosted at Harvard. Both teams have shown their dominance time and time again against Ivy League opponents and were extremely close to another double-sweep of the titles, as the men’s track and field team claimed the event after finishing second in the past two years and the women’s track and field team placed third after Harvard and Columbia.

The triumph of the men’s team in Cambridge this year marked the 22ndstraight year where the team would finish in the top two, demonstrating the program’s continued success. The team started the first day in good form, placing second with 39 points and trailed Cornell by only three points.

The first day consisted of a lot of preliminary heats, which included freshman Carrington Akosa’s record-tying 6.82 mark in the 60m. The Tigers were not hindered by the lack of events, as they impressed mightily in the jump events, with pole vault and long jump being the major success points for the team.

In the pole vault event, freshman August Kiles and sophomore Ben Gaylord had a 2-4 finish, as Kiles cleared a 5.10m mark, a personal record in his young Princeton career, and Gaylord placed two places below Kiles with a 4.90m mark.

The Tigers were even more impressive in the long jump event as they swept the podium finishes, taking a 1-2-3 finish via sophomore Greg Leeper, senior Tumi Akinlawon and junior Jake Scinto who had leaps of 7.27m, 7.26m and 7.20m, respectively, with Akinlawon setting his very own personal record that day as well. To round off the points, senior Mike Mazzaccaro came fourth in the 3000m run.

The second day brought even more success as the team rounded off the tournament in style, totaling 161 points and far outpacing the rest of the field, as Cornell placed second with only a meager 98 points.

Akosa has often been mentioned in these coverage reports and his form has surely deserved it, as he once again rounded off a dominant day for himself, winning the 200m with a time of 21.78 and placing second in the 60m. He was joined by juniors Dre Nelson and John Hill, who came fourth and sixth respectively, separated by just 0.01 of a second.

Although the team did not claim first in many other events, there were notable days for senior Nana Owusu-Nyantekyi and sophomore Christopher Cook who both broke their personal records, with Owusu-Nyantekyi earning a 15.67m mark on the triple jump and Cook achieving a shot put toss of 18.85m. Both athletes, however, could only claim the runners-up spots, and they were joined by freshman Lane Russell, who came fourth in the triple jump, and senior Scott Rushton, who came third in the shot put.

In the running events, freshman Garrett O’Toole came second in the mile run, while senior Rob Mohr and junior Greg Caldwell combined for a 2-3 finish in the 60m hurdles, with Caldwell beating a personal record with a time of 7.97.

Junior Luke Brahm and freshman Noah Kauppila had a 2-4 finish in the 1000m run, and a similar result occurred in the 5000m run for senior Matt McDonald and Mazzaccaro, including a personal record from McDonald with the time of 14:18.10.

The women’s team could not complete a double-sweep, but they performed impressively in their own right. The team had a successful first day, racking up 48 points, which at that stage far outdistanced Columbia, who had 28 points. However, the team only ended up with 105 points, which was 20 points behind Harvard and two points behind Columbia.

Junior Taylor Morgan won the indoor pentathlon event with great ease, totaling a score of 3923, which broke a school record that she had previously held. She was accompanied by fellow junior Kerry Krause, who finished in fifthplace.

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Once again, junior Julia Ratcliffe was too much for her opponents, as she picked up her first indoor weight throw title with a weight toss distance of 19.48m, more than 3m farther than any of her opponents’ distances.

Sophomore Megan Curham had a great tournament in her own right, as she finished as the runner-up in the 3000m before guiding the Tigers to a first place finish in the 5000m with a time of 16:01.51. She was joined on the podium for both events by junior Kathryn Fluehr as Fluehr came second in the 5000m and third in the 3000m.

There was also similar success for junior Cecilia Barowski and senior Kim Mackay, who placed first in the 800m and 500m, respectively. Mackay, with her victory this past weekend, now also holds the distinction as the only female Tiger to win the 500m event at the indoor heptagonals.

Other impressive showings this past weekend included sophomore Allison Harris’s third-place pole vault finish, junior Sara Ronde’s third-place long jump leap and junior Inka Busack’s third-place finish in the high jump.

Both teams will return to Massachusetts this upcoming weekend with the men’s team facing off in the IC4A Championships and the women’s team competing in the ECAC Championships, as both teams look to continue their fantastic form so far this season.