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 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.  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.

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 men continued their dominance of the League and carried on a hallmark of men's head coach Nathan Taylor's teams by coming to play in all the event areas.  Even as the Big Red had a balanced effort, however,  the attack was led by the middle distance and distance corps as Cornell finished in first or second in the 800 (1st), 1000 (2nd and 3rd), mile (1st), 3K (2nd) and 5K (1st) and won the distance medley relay.  Cornell got off to a great start in the meet's first day, charging to a 43.5 to 32.5 lead over Princeton while also leading the way with 13 qualifiers to Sunday's finals.  But despite the aforementioned distance running prowess, it was in the field where Cornell got the bulk of its points on Day One.  Junior Duane Teixeira produced one of the day's big highlights with a first place leap of 23-6 3/4 to earn his first career individual Heps title.  Senior Aaron Gadson picked up an impressive third in reaching 23-1 3/4 while junior Gary Jones earned his sash with a sixth place 22-11 1/4.  Senior co-captain Erik Roneker threw an NCAA provisional qualifier in the weight throw, producing a mark of 64-10 3/4 to place second while freshman Bob Belden placed fourth in a big personal best 59-2 3/4; junior Damian Silverstrim hit the IC4A standard in finishing 8th in 55-10 1/2.  In one of the more competitive events in the meet, junior Josh Kirkpatrick was third, tying his personal best with a clearance of 16-4 3/4 in the pole vault.  In the day's final event, senior Zach Hine placed second in the 3000, crossing the line in 8:18.95.

Cornell seemed to be everywhere in the preliminaries as freshman Nick Huber (soon after advancing in the 60 hurdles along with junior Ola Williams) and senior co-captain Marcel van Eeden qualified in the 400, freshman Ken McClain and junior Mike Kippins made it through in the 500, senior Jim Wyner advanced in the 800, senior Andrew Levy, senior Sam Luff and sophomore Adrien Dannemiller (in 2:25.82, #8 all-time at Cornell) advanced to the 1000 final and senior Andy Miller, junior Charlie Hatch and junior Owen Kimple qualified in the mile.

Moving on to Sunday, senior co-captain Andy Miller set the tone for Cornell in the first track final of the day, cruising to victory in the mile in 4:15.63.  Also helping jump-start the Cornell effort was a trio of high jumpers.  Another senior co-captain, Garrett Huyler, was second at 6-11 1/2 while classmate Jim Smith and sophomore Enbani Moore tied for sixth at 6-6 1/4.  Up next on the track, Williams (4th, 8.33) and Huber (5th, 8.37) added six more points to the Cornell ledger.  And then only ten minutes later, freshman Huber came back with one of the more impressive doubles of the day, winning the 400 in 48.22, #3 all-time at Cornell.  Senior van Eeden was second in a seasonal best 48.70 as the Big Red picked up 18 points.  In the 500, another impressive freshman long sprinter stepped up in his first Heps.  After a personal best in the prelims, Ken McLain ran even faster in the final, producing the #2 time in school history in placing second in 1:03.37;  junior Mike Kippins was sixth in 1:04.48.

One of the great races on the weekend came in the men's 800.  2007 champ Jimmy Wyner had attempted one of the tougher doubles on the schedule the night before, running in the 3000 final only 25 minutes after the 800 prelim.  After getting spiked and straining his groin in winning his 800 prelim, Wyner was unable to produce a scoring run in the 3K.  Determined to have a different result in the 800 final, Wyner staged a comeback on the last lap to edge Columbia's Mike Mark 1:52.15 to 1:52.16 in a great race by both runners.  Here's a link to one of the signature close finishes of the weekend:

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234724-2009-ivy-league-indoor-championships/157859-m-800-f

Cornell's big showings in the middle distances continued in the 1000 as Andrew Levy placed second in a tactical final, running 2:29.97.  Columbia's fine middle distance squad turned the tables in the 1000 as Jeff Moriarty edged Levy by .26.  Sophomore Adrien Dannmeiller earned his sash with a good third place effort of 2:30.01.  As the middle distance events finished up, the Big Red received scoring efforts from sophomores Chris Ryan (fifth, 4528 points) and Alex Holcombe (sixth, 4421 despite a no height in the pole vault) in the heptathlon.  And in the triple jump, Teixeira (3rd, 49-3), Jones (4th, 49-2 1/2) and Gadson (6th, 48-1 1/4) picked up more points for the Cornell cause.  Meanwhile, Roneker finished up another big weekend with a second place heave of 55-11 3/4 (tying his personal best) in the shot put.

With the team lead ballooning over thirty points, Cornell officially put the meet out of reach in the 5000, and it was only fitting that senior Zach Hine help clinch the title.  After a gritty second place effort Saturday night in the 3000, Hine won the indoor 5K for the second straight year, running 14:17.64, #4 all-time at Cornell indoors.  Sophomore Nate Edelman stepped up to place fourth in a personal best 14:29.12, closing well in the last few laps to insure a high finish.  Here's a link to the race:

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234724-2009-ivy-league-indoor-championships/157738-m-5k-f

The Cornell men were not content to settle heading into the relays and in fact won two of the three contested.  Up first, the distance medley relay of Dannemiller (3:07.4), senior Nate Crabtree (48.6), Kimple (1:53.4) and Miller (4:07.9) won with a time of 9:57.29, #6 all-time at Cornell.  Here's a clip of the race, Miller's second win of the day:

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234724-2009-ivy-league-indoor-championships/157746-m-dmr

In the two mile relay, the quartet of senior Sam Luff (1:56.7), Hatch (1:56.5), junior Pete Loy (1:59.4) and Levy (1:52.7 in a great anchor leg) ran 7:46.05 for sixth as Luff and Loy earned their sashes.  Cornell closed out the meet in style with a wire-to-wire win in the mile relay as van Eeden (48.9), Kippins (49.4), Huber (49.7) and McClain (48.4) ran 3:16.46, a seasonal best at the end of an exciting weekend of competition.  Here's a link to the final race of the day:

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234724-2009-ivy-league-indoor-championships/157680-m-4x400-f-h02

Here are some links that might be of interest:

Results:
http://www.lancertiming.com/results/winter09/hepsm.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 IC4A 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.