Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Men's Track in First Place After First Day of Heps
May 10, 2009 | Men's Track and Field
PHILADELPHIA (5/9/09) ? The Princeton men's track and field team is in first place after day one the Ivy League Heptagonal but the Tigers don't have the title in the bag just yet. Princeton is in the lead with 37 points, with the six-time defending league champion Cornell four points back.
Cornell leads the way in regards to qualifiers from Saturday to Sunday, with 13 qualifiers. Penn has 11, while Princeton and Columbia have eight each. Yale, Dartmouth, Harvard and Brown have 6, 5, 4 and 3 respectively.
Dartmouth is third with 25 points, Brown has 20, Penn has 16, Harvard 15 and Yale 9.
Senior Alex Pessala completed a rare feat winning the hammer throw in each of his four years at Princeton. His mark of 64.42 meters (211-04) is the best mark at Outdoor Heps since 1987 and is the third best all-time at Heps. Pessala joins former Tiger Josh McCaughey as a four-time hammer champion.
Sophomore Craig Pearce finished second in the hammer for the second straight year with a mark of 56.89 (196-08). The two Tigers combined to give Princeton 18 points in the event.
Princeton racked up 11 points in the pole vault, taking third, fourth and sixth place. Junior Chad Faulkner finished in third place clearing 5.05 (16-06.75). Freshman David Slovenski reached 4.65 (16-02.75) for fourth place, and classmate Derek Hynes cleared 4.65 (15-03.00).
Freshman Donn Cabral and Brian Leung added to the team's total as well with excellent finishes in the 10,000-meter run. Cabral took third at 30:38.41, while Leung was fifth at 30:56.30.
Headed into Sunday, eight Tigers will look to keep Princeton in first place.
Sophomore Mike Eddy clocked in at 46.49 in the 400-meter dash to lead the list of qualifiers. In the 74-year history of Heps, only four runners have been quicker and only one has been faster in the preliminaries. Freshman Austin Hollimon will join Eddy in the finals, as he posting a time of 47.50, the third best time of the day.
Hollimon made a name for himself in the 200-meter dash crossing the line at 21.21, the best time of the day.
Senior Michael Maag led the way in the 1,500-meter run finishing in 3:49.96. Sophomore Mark Amirault also made the cut for tomorrow's final.
In the 400-meter hurdles, junior Tom Zozokos had the second-best time of the afternoon, clocking in at 53.02. In the 110-meter hurdles, senior Chris Vasich and sophomore Adam Thayer both qualified with the second and sixth best times of the day.
The remaining field events will also take place, and senior Steve Slovenski will wrap up his run at the decathlon.