Though no team scores were officially kept, both the men’s and women’s track teams are considering their performances this past weekend at the outdoor Penn Invitational successes. Combined, three women and four men won their events, while an additional 26 athletes placed in the top five of their respective events.
“We stacked up extremely well against the competition,” said women’s head coach Lou Duesing. “Despite the fact that the weather conditions at the meet were not very favorable, the quality of our performances was very good.”
Speaking for his team, men’s head coach Nathan Taylor said similarly, “In general, we did pretty well, especially considering that all of our guys were coming off a hard week of intense weight training and that some guys didn’t compete or competed in different events.”
The meet, the first for both teams since they captured championships at the U.C. Irvine Invitational and the Long Beach Classic over spring break, consisted of more than 10 teams and hundreds of runners from schools throughout the East coast. Though the competition was stiff and featured Ivy-rivals Penn and Columbia, the Red performed extremely well.
For the women, senior captain Katy Jay led the way, winning the 400-meter dash with a time of 55.71. Jay also earned second place in the 100-meter dash and finished third in the 200 meters.
Red middle-distance runners also performed strongly. Sophomore Jessica Brown captured the 800-meter run in 2:12.11, while senior Natalie Whelan was the first to cross the finish line in the 1500-meter run with a time of 4:32.77. Freshman Emily McCabe came up just short in the 5000 meters, finishing in second place in 17:35.39.
The 4×400-meter relay team dominated the competition with a winning time of 3:48.30.
Cornell also turned in a number of admirable performances in the field events. Junior Ib Stanley-Ikhilioju placed third in both the long jump and the triple jump, and Brown placed second in the high jump. In the throws, sophomores Stacey Nadolny and Becky Tucker earned third-place finishes in the discus and the hammer, respectively.
The men made an even more impressive showing. Twenty athletes came away with top-five performances, including four first-place finishes.
Runners in the 5000-meter event paved the way for their teammates by sweeping the first three places. Senior Dan Dombroski came in first place with a time of 14:30.79, followed by seniors Barry Kahn (14:32.02) and Geoff Van Fleet (14:35.55). Senior Daryn Johnson won the 3000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:27.83. Sophomore Kenan Goggins had strong performances in both the 200-meter dash (21.69) and 400-meter dash (48.45), placing second in both. The 4×100-meter relay team placed second as well with a time of 41.66.
Leading the field events were sophomore Zach Beadle, who placed first in the shot put (15.42m) and junior Giles Longley-Cook, who placed first in the hammer throw (58.46m). Junior Jason Hart also turned in a solid performance, placing third in the triple jump (13.98m) and fourth in the long jump (6.59m).
“I was really pleased with the guys, especially Giles Longley-Cook, whose hammer was around eighth or ninth all-time here,” said Taylor in praising his athletes. “I also thought we did really well against Penn, who has eight to 10 really good athletes we’ll see in about a month at Heps.”
Both teams will return to action next week when they travel to Knoxville, Tenn. for the Sea Ray Relays.
Archived article by Everett Hullverson