It’s always a good day to have a good day when you’re competing at home, and that’s exactly what Princeton women’s track and field did this weekend at the Larry Ellis Invitational.
Ellis, the Invitational’s namesake, was the first Black head coach in the Ivy League, running Princeton’s track and field program for over 20 years.
“It’s always been a really, really good meet in the region,” Head coach Michelle Eisenreich told The Daily Princetonian. “It’s really nice to also be able to honor the memory of Larry Ellis, who was such a great coach for Princeton and also just a great leader in the community.”
Headlining the finishes for the Tigers were sophomores Georgina Scoot and Alexandra Kelly, whose long jumps — 6.49 and 6.45 meters, respectively — were huge personal records, vaulting them into second and third place in the Ivy League record books.
“That performance, honestly, was just so amazing and inspiring to watch,” sophomore pole vaulter Tessa Mudd told the ‘Prince.’ “They’re definitely each other’s biggest competitors in the Ivy League, so seeing that they’re still amazing friends, is just such a fun and cool dynamic to [see] play out in practice and in competition.”
Eisenreich added to the praise for her two star jumpers, saying, “We’ve seen it several times this year where one of them has a remarkable performance and the other responds, and so it’s just a really powerful relationship that they have as teammates, and really, the sky’s the limit for them.”
The dynamic duo didn’t stop after their Friday performance, matching their previous marks by placing first and second in the triple jump on Saturday. Scoot repeated as champion with a distance of 12.94 meters, and Kelly was once again right behind at 12.39 meters.
Other successful events for Princeton on the first day of competition included yet another 1–2 sweep, this time in the 1500 meters, where junior Mena Scatchard and senior Margaret Liebich finished in 4:15 and 4:18, respectively.
Rounding out Friday’s other top-five finishes for the Tigers were junior Alexis Allen with a fifth-place time of 10:28 in the 3000 meter steeplechase and first-year Angela McAuslan-Kelly with a fourth-place hammer throw of 59.05 meters.
Heading into the second day of competition, Princeton continued their strong performances. The sophomore jumping power continued, as along with the triple jump performance from Scoot and Kelly, Mudd finished second in the pole vault, clearing 4.25 meters and qualifying for NCAA Regionals.
“I had a rough two weeks that I really wasn’t expecting… so I’m excited to see myself clearing bars again,” Mudd said. “The 4.25 clearance was actually the school record, and I didn’t know that until after the fact, so it’s exciting to know that I’m capable of clearing bars like that any day.”
Princeton’s other win of the day came in the discus, where junior Siniru Iheoma won with a throw of 52.89 meters. It was a busy day for Iheoma, who also placed third in the shot put with a throw of 14.69 meters.
More Princeton top-five finishes scattered the rest of the day’s competition. Adding to her fifth-place finish in the steeplechase Friday, Allen finished third in Saturday’s 1500 meter run in 4:33, with sophomore Maddie Cramer not far behind in fifth place with a time of 4:37.
In the 200 meters, junior Adelaide Asante finished in third place, running the distance in 24.36 seconds. Rounding out the day for the Tigers was the only relay effort of the weekend, a seventh-place finish in the 4x400 meters with a combined time of 3:55.
Overall, the Larry Ellis Invitational continued building the momentum the Tigers have had throughout the season, and the home competition offered valuable lessons.
“We’re in a great place, and we have people in scoring positions across all the events,” Eisenreich added. “It was pretty nice as well to have some adverse weather conditions during Larry Ellis on [Saturday]; it was pretty cold and windy, so it gave us a chance to practice strategies for coping with that as well.”
Mudd concurred, situating the weekend’s strong performances along a path of development towards the end of the season.
“The focus this season has really just been on supporting your teammates and trusting the process and building all this momentum so that by the time we get to the Ivy League championships, especially since it’s a home meet, we’ll have all of that momentum carrying us hopefully to a team title,” Mudd added. “This weekend, it just continued to play out how it was hoped to play out.”
Concluding, Eisenreich looked ahead to the future, starting with an away meet next weekend in Virginia.
“We’re pretty excited about what the next three weeks will bring, and hopefully we can just continue to prove to ourselves and everyone else that we are one of the best track teams in the country.”
Max Hines is a staff Sports writer for the ‘Prince.’
Please direct any corrections requests to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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