CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The Cornell men's track and field team earned 115 points, giving the Big Red an impressive second-place finish in the 2024 Ivy League Indoor Heptagonal Championships. This marks the Big Red's best finish at the Heptagonal Championships since 2017. The Cornellians collected crowns in three events over the course of the weekend along with a plethora of podium finishes.

Final Team Standings
Princeton - 168
Cornell - 115
Pennsylvania - 106
Harvard - 81
Brown - 45
Dartmouth - 39
Yale - 38
Columbia - 28

Champions Were Crowned
Damian Hackett was the first Big Red Heps champion of the weekend, pacing the mile in a time of 4:03.90 to capture the Ivy League crown. Brad Morell took the oval in the shot put, earning gold with his 18.50-meter career-best throw. The distance medley relay squad of Colden Longley, Michael Mazero, Mario Xerri, and Hackett bested the event, giving Cornell its second consecutive DMR gold at the Heps Championships.

Podium Finishes
Tomas Kersulis had the opportunity to defend his crown in the 400-meter dash, but fell short of the top spot by less than half a second to Harvard's Gregory Lapit. Fabian De Silva tacked on a team point, earning a 400-meter medal with his 48.75-second time. Rhys Hammond finished third in the 5000-meter run, earning six points for the team with his 14:09.07 pace. Mark Skerl (5262) and Ryan Brynjolfson (5211) earned a couple of personal-best podium finishes, taking second and fourth in the heptathlon respectively. Pierre Attiogbe joined Hackett on the mile podium, taking sixth (4:06.04).

Ryder King and Charles Well-Davis took third and fifth respectively in the 60-meter hurdles to give the Big Red a healthy eight-point boost in the team standings. Tyler Tisinger's personal best time of 1:50.72 in the 800-meter run gave the Big Red four additional points, as the mid-distance runner took fourth. In the 1000-meter run, the Big Red gained 10 points, led by newly acclaimed record-holder Derek Amicon (2:23.22) and previous record-holder Brady Shute (2:24.42).

Domenic Baressi scored one point each in two events, finishing the 60-meter dash in 6.82 seconds, and the 200-meter dash in 21.64 seconds. Desmond Whitley leaped 14.45 meters in the triple-jump which put him on the podium and aided the team point score with one point. 22 points were gained for Cornell during the relay events with 10 in the distance medley (9:56.62), six in the 4x400 (Gittens, De Silva, Dove, Kersulis - 3:12.58), and another six in the 4x800 (Attiogbe, Shute, Amicon, Tisinger - 7:36.72).

Cornell Personal Bests, Top 10 All-Time
Mark Skerl
60-meter hurdles (multis) - 6.86 seconds
1000-meter run (multis) - 2:48.53
heptathlon points - 5262

Patrick Brewer
60-meter hurdles (multis) - 7.38 seconds
heptathlon points - 4885

Ryan Brynjolfson
1000-meter run (multis) - 2:54.38
heptathlon points - 5211 (no. 6 in Cornell history)

Ryan Antwi
triple jump - 14.12 meters

Derek Amicon
1000-meter run - 2:23.86 (Cornell record)

Noah Harman
shot put - 17 meters

Rhys Hammond
5000-meter run - 14:09.07 (no. 4 in Cornell history)

Brad Morell
shot put - 18.50 meters (no. 3 in Cornell history)

Complete Results - Click Here

Next Up
The Cornell men's track and field team will gear up for the Intercollegiate Association of Amatuer Athletes of America (IC4A) Championships, which is slated to begin on Mar. 2.