Track Excels Over Ivy Foes

The Harvard Select meet was held in Cambridge, Mass. this past weekend, and the track and field teams showed why they are two of the top squads in the Ivy League. The women, scoring 181 points on Saturday, took first place over opponents Brown, Harvard and New Hampshire.
The women are off to a strong start this season, taking first place in both scored meets this season. For the second week in a row, Red standout senior Jeomi Maduka won the long jump, triple jump and 60-meter dash to continue her outstanding season. The women also showed a strong team effort in their victory.
In the 60-meter dash, Cornell runners Maduka, Melissa Hewitt, Janice Nsor and Krystal Williams took Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively. In another team effort, hurdlers Danielle Silas, Taylor Baird and Lauren Tanz went Nos. 2, 3 and 4 in the 60-m hurdles. In the distance medley relay, runners Kerri Lyons, Tameka Royal, Christine Curtis and Jeanell English finished third, qualifying them for the ECACs.
“I was very happy with how the team did,” said women’s head coach Lou Duesing. “I thought the people competed very well, I thought they got charged up because of the kind of meet it was and the people we were competing against. Harvard and Brown are both going to be real players in a month, so it’s nice to get a chance to see them and get a chance to compete against them and see how you stack up.”[img_assist|nid=34682|title=Eyeing the competition|desc=The women’s track team scored 181 points to place first in the Harvard Select meet on Saturday.|link=node|align=left|width=|height=0]
The men’s team spent the weekend in New York City at the 102nd running of the Millrose Games, held at Madison Square Garden. The Red entered its 4×800 relay team consisting of Andy Miller, Charlie Hatch, Andrew Levy and Jimmy Wyner. The foursome, running on an unnaturally small track, narrowly lost to Villanova for a second-place finish.
The men’s team then traveled to Cambridge, where it took second to UConn but beat out Ivy League opponents Harvard and Brown, as well as New Hampshire. In a meeting of arguably the best two teams in the New York and New England regions, the Red didn’t matchup to the Huskies as well as it had hoped to.
“In some places we did pretty well,” Taylor said. “But in a lot of other places, we didn’t really respond to the challenge. … It is the competition and performance that counts. I thought some of the guys were very prepared and did a very good job, but then there were other spots that we did not do well in, and these guys have to learn to focus on the competitions and get psyched up and get after it.”
There were a few bright spots for the men this weekend. Junior Pete Loy made his mark in the Cornell record books by running 8:14.02 seconds in the 3000-m. The time was good enough for first in Cambridge and No. 10 on Cornell’s all-time list. Senior Aaron Gadson took first in the triple jump with an IC4A qualifying 47-10 ¾. Freshman Kenny McClain and senior Nate Crabtree also had event wins in the 400-meter and 200-meter, respectively.