Princeton University Athletics
Women First, Men Second After First Day of Ivy League Heptagonals
February 28, 2004 | Women's Track and Field
Feb. 28, 2004
ITHACA, N.Y. - After an exciting first day of competition at the 57th Ivy League Heptagonal Indoor Track & Field Championships, Cornell leads the men's side, and Princeton holds a slim lead for the women. In addition to some great team performances, the day also saw some impressive individual achievements, including Yale's Joslyn Woodard shattering a decade-old Ivy record, and Princeton's Josh McCaughey setting a new Ivy milestone of his own.
For the men, the Big Red compiled 54 points Saturday and lead second-place Princeton (28 points) by 26 points with four of 19 events complete. Dartmouth is second for the men with 16 points, Columbia is third with 12, Brown holds fifth with seven, while Penn is in sixth with six points and Yale is seventh with one point.
With five of 17 events scored on the women's side, Princeton has 37 points, just ahead of Cornell with 35. Penn is in third with 24, Dartmouth is close behind at 23.5, Yale has 22.5, and Columbia has 6 points. Brown and Harvard round out the field with five and two points, respectively. Saturday's highlights for the Cornell men included taking three of the top four places in both the pole vault and long jump. The Big Red's Adam Sansiveri captured first in the pole vault at a height of 16-0 3/4. Teammate Travis Offner, the 2002 Heps champion, took second at the same height, while Penn's Neal Wojdowski placed third at 15-9. Cornell's Evan Whitehall cleared 15-9 to take fourth.
In the long jump, the Big Red had Ryan Schmidt (23-9 1/2) in first, 2003 champ Tyler Kaune (23-8 3/4) in second, and Jason Hart (23-0 3/4) finish fourth. Princeton got six points in the event when Dwaine Banton captured the third-place spot with a length of 23-6 1/4.
The events today are the events we are strong in, and our guys came to play," Cornell men's coach Nathan Taylor said. "Thankfully, all our athletes in the running events made it to the finals as well, so there's a lot of excitement at Cornell right now."
One of the day's individual highlights was Princeton thrower McCaughey becoming the first four-time Heps champion in the weight throw. McCaughey's title-winning distance of 65-7 1/2 is the seventh-best throw in Heps history, and the Tiger senior now holds three of the top seven distances in Heps history. McAughey had stiff competition Saturday from Cornell's Giles Longley-Cook, who took second with a distance of 64-11 1/4. Longley-Cook's mark is also tied for the 10th-best mark all-time at Heps.
Columbia captured its only points of the day when senior Steve Sundell took first place in the 3000-meter run with a time of 8:28.54, Princeton's Tristan Colangelo gained eight points for his squad with a second-place time of 8:30.96, and Dartmouth's Jarrod Shoemaker took third at 8:32.48.
On the women's side, Yale sophomore Woodard shattered a decade-old Heps record with a leap of 20-07 in the long jump. Woodard beat the previous Heps record of 19-07.75, set by Brown's Margaret Crumety in 1993, by almost a full foot. In fact, her distance is the top long jump by an Ivy female ever, breaking Yale's Samantha Lincoln's 1992 mark of 20-5.
Wooodard, who won the long jump, 60-meter run and 200-meter run last season on her way to the 2003 Ivy Indoor Female Athlete of the Meet honor, also qualified for Sunday's 200-meter final with a time of 25.11. But her hopes of a repeat three-peat fell short after a false start in the 60-meter run caused her to be disqualified.
"Today was my best track day and my worst track day," Woodard said. (After the false start) I transferred my energy to the long jump. With (the 60-meter run) out of the way, I knew I had to do something in the long jump."
Princeton's Emily Kroshus, the 2003 Heps cross country champion, captured the 5000-meter title with an NCAA-provisional time of 16:45.13. Teammate Meredith Lambert placed a close second at 16:46.94, while Cornell's Kate Boyles took third at 16:55.11.
Yale's Molly Lederman captured her first pole vault title, clearing a height of 12-05.50. Samantha Crook of Penn finished second at the same height, and Princeton's Chelo Canino placed third at 11-09.75. Lederman and Crook's height of 12-05.50 is the fifth-best height all-time at Indoor Heps.
In the weight throw, Cornell's Becky Tucker used a toss of 59-4 1/4 to capture first, just ahead of Dartmouth's Jamila Smith in second at 57-8 1/4. The Big Red took third place in event as well, with Sheeba Ibidunni hitting a mark of 57-0.
In the day's final event, Dartmouth's Kelsey Wiegmann took first with 3,779 points, the fifth-best total all-time at Indoor Heps. Penn's Shani Boston placed third with 3,598 points, while 2003 champ Susan Coltman of Princeton totaled 3,568 points for third.