It didn’t take long for the men’s track team to avenge its disappointing second-place finish at the Heps Ivy League championships.
One week after falling to Princeton by a three-point margin, the Red finished in first place among a 74 team field at the IC4A Indoor Track and Field championships held in Boston. It was Cornell’s first title since 1930 and the first time an Ivy League school had taken the top spot since 1972.
The Red won three events en route to accumulating 50 points, five more than second-place Seton Hall.
[img_assist|nid=21846|title=We fly high|desc=Senior co-captain David Pell flops over the bar in Barton Hall. Pell and sophomore Garrett Huyler finished 1-2 in the high jump at the IC4A meet, the second consecutive meet the duo placed in the top-2.|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=79]
Last year’s champion, Penn State, fell to 19th place this season. Ivy-League foes Yale and Penn finished 15th and 30th, respectively. The Red finished in second place in 2006.
In the triple jump, junior Rayon Taylor blew away the competition with a distance of 52-01.25 feet. No one else finished jumper further than 51 feet.
Freshman Duane Teixeira and sophomore Aaron Gadson finished the event in 16th and 17th place, respectively.
In the high jump, the Red finished 1-2. Senior co-captain David Pell and sophomore Garrett Huyler each cleared a height of 2.12 meters, but Pell took the victory as he was able to clear the height in his first attempt. The two teammates picked up 18 points for the Red with their success in the event.
“To take 1-2 for the second week in a row felt pretty good,” Pell said.
The Red’s other victory came in the 4×800, where senior Brian Mongeon, junior Jimmy Wyner and sophomores Andy Miller and Mike Smayda combined for a time of 7:37.28.
“I was pretty happy to be part of a winning team,” Mongeon said.
The Red also excelled in the other relay event, placing second in the 4×400.
Junior Saidu Ezike finished just short of tallying points with his sixth-place finish in the 55 meter hurdles.
Also competing for the Red were sophomore Marcel van Eeden, who placed eighth in the 400 meter, classmate Erik Roneker, who placed 14th in the shot put and freshman Brian Cortina, who finished 20th in the same event.
The ECACs are the women’s equivalent to the IC4As. The women tallied 37 points at the competition, earning a fifth-place finish. They finished 24 points behind first-place Connecticut.
The only individual winner for the Red was senior co-captain Sarah Wilfred, who won the high jump.
“I was very, very proud of the way she competed,” said women’s head coach Lou Duesing.
The women also collected three second-place finishes. Senior Toni-Lynn Salucci broke her own school record in the 3K event with a time of 9:23.43. The Red also placed second in the 4×800. The distance medley team finished sixth.