CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The Cornell track and field teams continued their historic run of success in the Ivy League this weekend, as both the men and the women won the team titles at the 62nd running of the Indoor Heps, hosted this year by Harvard.  The women won the Indoor Heps for the seventh time in eight years (and now have claimed 14 of 15 overall Heps track titles, including the last seven outdoor championships) and were led by a truly memorable series of performances from senior Jeomi Maduka, who was again voted the meet's Most Outstanding Performer by virtue of her four event wins and two meet records.  The men won for the fifth time in seven years indoors (and have now captured 11 of 13 Heps track titles overall, including the past six team titles outdoors), claiming victory by a commanding 55 points over a strong Princeton team.  The Big Red men, led by terrific performances in the middle distance and distance events as well as an infusion of impressive freshmen performers, won seven events and also boasted seven runner-up showings, claiming first or second team All-Ivy honors in a staggering 13 of the 19 events contested on the weekend, while scoring in a remarkable 18 of 19.

Maduka earned the Most Outstanding Performer award for the second year in a row indoors and for the fifth time in her career.  Her final indoor Heps was particularly special as she set meet records in the 60 dash and triple jump and also won the long jump and 200.  Her triple jump of 43-10 1/2 was an NCAA automatic qualifier and an all-time Ivy League record, while her long jump was an NCAA provisional qualifier.  In the 62 year history of the Indoor Heps, no one - male or female - had won four individual events at the Championships until Maduka accomplished the feat this weekend.  The four titles at the 2009 Championship bring her career indoor individual Heps title total to 10, tying the all-time record held by Yale great Joslyn Woodard.  Maduka's exploits are legendary but she also led a balanced Cornell effort that boasted wins from senior co-captain Maria Matos in the weight throw and another victory from the 4X400 as well as a pair of runner-up finishes from freshman Melissa Hewitt.  The Cornell women had 23 scoring performances and 34 ECAC qualifying efforts spread across all the event groups as the Big Red scored in 12 of 17 events to outdistance the 2008 indoor champions, Princeton, by a score of 117.5 to 99.  Host Harvard had a good meet to get third with 79.5 points.   Here's a link to an interview with Maduka after the meet, in which she describes her effort, as well as those of her teammates:  http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234724-2009-ivy-league-indoor-championships/157806-jeomi-maduka-mvp

Even as the Cornell women reclaimed the indoor title won by Princeton last year, the Big Red men won for the second straight year and appeared to have not missed a beat despite the graduation of an outstanding group of seniors in 2008.  The 2008 edition of the Big Red set a meet record for margin of victory (56), and the 2009 edition threatened that mark, out-pointing Princeton 176.5 to 121.5.  With a first or second place finish in every middle distance and distance race and strong performances across the board, the Cornell men had an amazing 31 different scoring performances and 32 IC4A qualifiers to go along with an NCAA provisional qualifier.

The Cornell women entered Sunday's final day in second place, 13.5 points behind the defending champion Tigers, but leading the field with 16 qualifiers through to Sunday's finals.  Princeton had a terrific Day One, but so did Cornell as Maduka won the long jump for the third straight year (20-6 1/2) and sophomore Kim Lienhoop placed fifth at 18-2 1/2.   Here's some footage of Maduka in the long jump:

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234724-2009-ivy-league-indoor-championships/156684-lj-jeomi-maduka

Even as Maduka was re-writing the history books, Matos won her third straight weight throw title on Saturday, heaving the weight a seasonal best 58-9 3/4; junior Kristen Rhinehardt scored for the first time in her career with a sixth place 49-11 1/4.  In the vault, junior Natalie Gengel competed well to get third with a clearance of 12-3 1/2 while freshman Sam Brady earned her sash in tying for sixth at 11-3 3/4.  Meanwhile, the Big Red had an army of qualifiers for the next day.  One of the highlights in the qualifying round was Maduka setting the meet record in the 60 (7.51) in heat one before watching freshman teammate Melissa Hewitt dip under with a time of 7.49 to take it away in the next heat!  They were joined in qualifying for the finals by senior Janice Nsor and junior Krystal Williams.  The Big Red had three qualifiers in the 60 hurdles (freshman Dani Silas, sophomore Lauren Tanz and freshman Taylor Baird), four in the 200 (Maduka, Hewitt, Williams and junior Jessica Weyman), three in the 400 (Weyman, senior Erin Payne and junior Megan Williams) and one apiece in the 800 (senior Tammy Wynne) and the mile (junior Caroline Heidt).   Just missing out on scoring was junior Stephanie Pancoast in the 5K (7th in a seasonal best 17:16.81) and freshman Karen Schillinger in the pentathlon (9th, 3136 points).  Also running well with ECAC qualifiers but just missing the finals were freshman Molly Glantz (2:13.90), senior Megan Rae (2:14.12) and senior Amanda Wheat (2:14.24) in the 800 and freshman Meghan Brown (4:59.32) in the mile.

As Sunday's finals began, Princeton came out determined to hold on to their title, and indeed they had a very good meet.  Their 13.5 point lead soon reached 30 points after the shot put and the mile, but then the Big Red began to chip away.  Maduka got the Cornell scoring on Sunday off to a great start with her meet record in the triple jump and Lienhoop added a point with a personal best 38-9 3/4 (an ECAC qualifier).  The young trio of hurdlers stepped up to add 11 points to the Cornell total as Tanz (3rd, 8.86), Silas (4th, 8.87) and Baird (6th, 8.89) continued the Big Red's fine tradition in the event.  Weyman (4th, 55. 48) and Payne (5th, 55.51) scored six points for Cornell in the 400 and suddenly the Princeton lead was down to 7.5 with a big event up next for Cornell.

In the 60, Maduka led an impressive 1-2-3-4 showing for Cornell, reclaiming the meet record with a time of 7.47.  Freshman Hewitt was second in 7.55, Nsor third in 7.64 and Krystal Williams fourth in 7.69 as Cornell totalled 26 in the 60 to move into a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the day.    Here's a link to video of the race, a real turning point in the meet:

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234724-2009-ivy-league-indoor-championships/157786-w-60-f

Up next, senior Tammy Wynne stepped up in her first appearance in a Heps 800 final, placing fifth in 2:12.89.  In the 200, Maduka closed out her indoor Heps career with a commanding win, running 24.51 (#2 all-time at Cornell).  Hewitt finished up a great first Heps with another second place finish, running 24.77 while Weyman scored with a sixth place 25.35.  Here are links to the 200 finals:

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234724-2009-ivy-league-indoor-championships/157749-w-200-f-h02

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234724-2009-ivy-league-indoor-championships/157747-w-200-f-h01

In the 3000, Cornell withstood a great effort from Princeton and picked up a point in an inspired effort from senior Fiona Cundy, who came back from a tough 5000 final the night before to set a 14 second personal best of 9:42.71 (#10 all-time at Cornell) to place sixth!

The Big Red clinched the indoor team title in the relays, placing fifth in the two mile relay in a time of 9:00.83 (#5 all-time at Cornell), behind legs from freshman Brown (2:16.8), senior Rae (2:14.7), junior Kerri Lyons (2:15.2) and Glantz (2:14.0).  And Cornell closed out the meet in style, winning the mile relay for the eighth straight year, running 3:46.76 as freshman Kelsey Reimnitz (57.4), Megan Williams (57.2), Payne (55.6) and Weyman (56.5 in her sixth race of the weekend) all ran very well.  Here's a link to the winning mile relay:

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234724-2009-ivy-league-indoor-championships/157779-w-4x400-f-h02

Here are some links that might be of interest:
Results:
http://www.lancertiming.com/results/winter09/hepsw.htm

A great Blog and series of recaps and photos, the official "site" of Heps track:
http://hepstrack.com/

More videos:
http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view/234724-2009-ivy-league-indoor-championships

More photos, from Brown alum Dan Grossman, who provides a great service by taking literally thousands of pictures at every Heps meet:
http://public.fotki.com/PineTree123/2009-albums/2009-ivy-league-hep/2009-02-28-ivy-leag/

The Cornell teams will send some representatives to the ECAC Championships in Boston on March 7-8.  The Indoor NCAAs will be hosted by Texas A&M on March 13-14 while the bulk of the team will begin the outdoor season with the annual Spring Trip on March 14 in California.