One of the most important meets of the season, the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships represented a chance for the Red to test its talents against conference rivals.
And by all measures, Cornell track and field solidified its position as an Ivy powerhouse. Men’s track and field finished third behind Princeton and Penn, while the women’s team took home fourth behind Penn, Harvard and Princeton. It marked the 16th straight season that the men’s team managed to earn a top-three finish.
The meet began with field events, with four of the men’s long jumpers going on to qualify for nationals. Senior Alex Rodriguez won the long jump with a jump of 23’11.75 and junior James Seaton followed behind with a fourth place jump of 23’8.
For the women, senior Michaela Smith won her second consecutive outdoor shot put title, while also breaking the school record held by Victoria Imbesi ’13 with a throw of 50 feet 4 ½ inches, making her the first Cornellian to break 50 feet outdoors. Freshman Marguerite Lorenzo continued her breakout rookie season by claiming third place in high jump with a jump of 5’7”.
The distance team once again proved to be a stable source of points for the men’s team during the meet. Senior Chase Silverman was one of the first final qualifiers with a time of 3:52.14 in an intensely physical 1500m race, which he proceeded to follow up with a third overall finish in 3:48.88. Senior Michael Wang continued his lights-out season by finishing sixth in the 3000m steeplechase.
Junior Briar Bumbley and freshman Gabrielle Orie both captured second and third places in the 3000m steeplechase with times of 10:09.96 and 10:13.84, respectively. Orie returned for the 5000m several hours later with a third place finish of 16:31.33 — besting his personal best by 17 seconds.
For the short distance team, juniors Alex Beck, who finished sixth, and captain Zach Menchaca, who finished second, both qualified for the final 100m race. Beck was also one of three Cornell runners that made it to the 200m final, where he finished fourth overall in 21.61.
In the 100m hurdle, sophomore Brittany Stenekes impressed once again by besting her own school record and finishing third in 13.51. The trio of Stenekes, Shepard, and Pearce teamed up with junior Martha Sam to finish third overall in the 4x100m with a time of 46.05.
After a well-balanced effort that featured numerous personal and school records broken, Cornell’s strong showings across all teams in the Heptagonal championships point to a promising cross country season in the fall.
Both the men’s and women’s look to end their seasons on a high note in the IC4 Championships next weekend in Princeton.