Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Three Tigers Qualify For World Junior Track & Field Championships
June 23, 2008 | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field
Three Princeton track & field athletes?junior Eric Plummer, sophomore Ashley Higginson and incoming freshman Donn Cabral?will represent the United States at the 2008 IAAF World Junior Championships in Poland in July. All three qualified for the world championships by finishing in the top two in their respective events at the USA Junior Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Columbus, Ohio, this past weekend.
Plummer, a Plainfield, N.J., native and the 2008 outdoor Heps champion in the shot put, won that event Saturday in Columbus with a toss of 62 feet, 6 1/2 inches on his second of six attempts. He defeated last year's junior national champion, Daniel Block, whose throw of 62 feet, 1 1/4 inches was good for second place.
"Last year we missed this championship with a team trip," said Plummer (The Tigers track & field teams went on a trip to China in June 2007). "To get here and make the world team it is unbelievable. It's amazing."
Higginson, the outdoor Heps 5,000-meter champion and an NCAA qualifier in the event in 2008, will be making a homecoming of sorts to the world championship meet. Her mother, Sophie, is a native of the country.
The Colts Neck, N.J., resident was second in the 5,000 meters at this weekend's Junior Nationals in a time of 16:33.83. Her time was less than two seconds off the winning time of Catherine White from the University of Arkansas.
Cabral, a distance runner from Glastonbury, Conn., will join the Tiger cross country and track & field teams in the fall of 2008. He placed second in the men's 10,000 meters at the junior nationals this weekend, finishing the 25 laps in a time of 30:50.28.
The 2008 IAAF World Junior Championships take place July 8-13 in Bydgoszcz, a city of nearly 400,000 in Northern Poland.