PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The outdoor Heps returned to Penn's Franklin Field this weekend, with spirited and close competition throughout the two day meet. For the seventh straight time, the Cornell men came out on top, winning four events and placing second in six others to score 165 points to finish 28 clear of a competitive and spirited Princeton team. Led by by meet MVP
Duane Teixeira, who won the long jump and the triple jump, the Big Red men picked up right where they left off at the indoor meet at Harvard. On the women's side, Princeton turned the tables on Cornell from the indoor meet, edging the Big Red 153-146 despite six event wins and six event runner-up showings by Cornell and ending Cornell's seven year outdoor winning streak.
In the storied history of the Heps, only three teams have won the outdoor championship seven straight years: the Penn men from 1971 through 1977, the Cornell women from 2002 through 2008 and now the Cornell men from 2003 through 2009. The first decade of the 21st century has been a remarkable one for the Cornell track and field teams as the Big Red men have now won five straight Heps team titles (counting indoors and outdoors) and 12 of the last 14 overall while the women, despite getting out-pointed by Princeton this weekend, have won 14 of the past 16 overall.
The Cornell men entered the meet with contenders in nearly every event and ended up scoring in every event the team entered (the only event the team did not score in was the javelin). As a whole, the men had 33 scoring performances, 36 IC4A qualifying performances, six NCAA Regional qualifiers and nine all-time Cornell top 10 performances on the weekend.
The men's championship was a team effort across all of the event groups, but the team was led by standout efforts in the jumps and from senior Zach Hine in the distance events. Junior
Duane Teixeira was voted the Meet MVP for winning the long jump (24-5 1/2) and the triple jump (51-5, #4 all-time) and extended Cornell's stranglehold in those events after
Muhammad Halim '08 and Rayon Taylor '07 helped Cornell claim both titles from 2006 through 2008. The triple jump was late in Sunday's program and with junior
Gary Jones placing second in 50-8 1/2 (#9 all-time) and senior
Aaron Gadson getting fifth (49-1 1.2), the Big Red jumpers effectively sealed the team competition for Cornell with their 20 team points. In the high jump, earlier in the day on Sunday, senior co-captain
Garrett Huyler was spectacular, winning in a school record 7-3. He led classmate
Jim Smith (3rd, 6-9 1/2) and junior
Jay Pierce (6th, 6-8 1/4) as the Big Red totaled 17 in the high jump alone. Another hero for Cornell was senior Zach Hine who won his first 10K title after finishing second the past two years, running 30:33.44 to finish just ahead of sophomore Nate Edelman (30:35.91). With junior
Joel Frost-Tift placing sixth in 30:59.30 the Big Red put up 19 points on the scoreboard in Saturday's final event. On Sunday afternoon, in the last individual event of the day, Hine placed third in the 5K in 14:30.71 while Edelman was fifth in 14:34.36. Hine closed the book on his great Heps career with a phenomenal total of 70 points and three individual event titles in his career at the indoor and outdoor Heps.
Although the Cornell margin of victory was 28 points, the meet was close throughout and Princeton held a four-point lead after Day One. In addition to the 19 points in the 10K on Saturday and Teixeira's long jump win, Cornell also had a fifth from junior Josh Kirkpatrick (16-2 3/4) in the pole vault and another fifth from senior co-captain
Erik Roneker in the hammer (182-1). In addition, the Big Red advanced a League best 13 through to Sunday's finals: senior Nate Crabtree and sophomore Andy Ahart in the 100 and 200, senior co-captain
Marcel van Eeden in the 400, senior
Andrew Levy in the 800, seniors
Andy Miller and
Jimmy Wyner in the 1500, freshmen
Nick Huber and
Dan Hagberg and sophomore Andrew Corridores in the 400 hurdles and Huber and junior Mike Kippins in the 400 hurdles.
Sunday got off to a terrific start as the 4X100 of Ahart, junior
Brad Herynk, sophomore
Chris Tait and Crabtree ran 41.12 (#5 all-time at Cornell) to place second to a very good Penn team. Next up, sophomore
Adrien Dannemiller ran a very fine race to place second in the 3000 steeplechase, crossing the line in 9:00.52, #9 all-time at Cornell. And senior
Sam Luff placed fourth in 9:13.54, an IC4A qualifier and big personal best. The next event for the men on the track was the 1500, a race that featured some of the best middle distance talent the League has seen for a number of years. Although Wyner crossed the line first with a big finishing kick, he was disqualified for bad sportsmanship. Miller, who had taken the lead with 500 meters to go, ended up fourth in 3:49.76. Video of the race can be seen here:
http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/235016/177933
Meanwhile, in the throwing events, Cornell continued to pick up points as Roneker (55-1 1/2) and freshman
Bob Belden (53-1 1/2) placed third and fourth in the shot put while Roneker came back to get fourth in the discus at 167-11.
On the track, Cornell bounced back from the 1500 with solid finishes in the 110 hurdles as the trio of Huber (14.66, #9 all-time), Hagberg (14.76) and Corridore finished third, fourth and sixth. Van Eeden placed third in the 400 in 47.47 (he ran a PR 47.37 in the prelims the day before) and in the 100, Crabtree (10.99) and Ahart (11.06) placed fourth and fifth. Levy, bothered much of the outdoor season with Achilles problems, had a terrific race to place sixth in in the 800 in an outdoor PR of 1:50.93. Huber had run a terrific race in the 110 hurdles to get third and looked great in the 400 hurdles, crossing the line first in 51.60 but was disqualified for a trail leg violation. That DQ moved Kippins up to sixth in 54.19. Crabtree ran a terrific 200 to give the Big Red a crucial 8 team points as the meet began to wind down, running an NCAA Regional qualifying 21.35. The grueling two day decathlon concluded towards the end of the meet and the Big Red had two scorers: sophomore
Alex Holcombe in third (6,378 points) and freshman
Josh Cusick in fifth (6,019 points). The final event for the men was the 4X400 and the squad of van Eeden (48.7), Kippins (48.3), Crabtree (47.9) and Huber (47.9) ran 3:13.35 to place second.
Lots more coverage, including recaps, video and results can be found at these three great web-sites:
http://hepstrack.com/
http://flashresults.com/2009_Meets/outdoor/Heps/
http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view/235016-2009-ivy-league-heps-championships
Next up for Cornell is the ECAC/IC4A Championships at Princeton, beginning Friday, May 15 and ending Sunday, May 17. After that, Cornell will compete at the NCAA East Regional Championships in Greensboro, N.C. on May 29 and 30 and the NCAA Championships will be held in Fayetteville, Ark., from June 10-13.
