Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Middle Distance Corps End First Day of Heps on a High Note
May 10, 2009 | Women's Track and Field
PHILADELPHIA (5/9/09) ? Senior Agatha Offorjebe highlighted the first day of the Ivy League Heptagonals for the Princeton women's track and field team. She set a personal best, shaving .28 seconds off her previous best, and qualified for the NCAA Regional in the 400-meter dash. Offorjebe had the second-best time in the preliminaries of the 400, clocking in at 54.38 in the final heat of the day.
Overall Princeton is currently in fifth place with 13 points. Cornell is in the lead with 28 points with Harvard following with 25, and Dartmouth with 24. Brown is in fourth place with 14 points, with Columbia and Penn trailing with 10 points apiece.
The Big Red has the most qualifiers entering tomorrow's events with 15 total, while Princeton, Penn and Columbia have nine each. Harvard, Yale, Brown and Dartmouth had 7, 4, 3 and 2, respectively.
Offorjebe finished second again in the 200 with a time of 24.23. She will go for the titles in the finals tomorrow. Freshman Eileen Moran also qualified in the 200 with the fourth-best time in the 200, at 24:56, and also qualified in the 100.
The Tigers came in 1-2-3-4 in the 10,000 meter, the final event of the day. Entering the bell lap, sophomore Sarah Cummings was second to junior Reilly Kiernan, as she had been for the first 24 laps. One-hundred meters into the final lap, Cummings exploded and charged 20 meters in front of Kiernan, finishing at 35:56.85 to Kiernan's 36:05.16. Junior Alex Glencer and defending 10,000-champion Jolee VanLeuven finished at 36:29.61 and 36:59.38, respectively.
Sophomore Emma Ruggiero took third in the hammer throw with a mark of 52.43 (172-00). Classmate Thanithia Billings was sixth at 46.82 (153-07). The two combined to give Princeton seven points.
In the pole vault, senior Jessica Kloss finished third clearing 3.85 meters (12-07.50) adding six points to the team total with her NCAA regional qualifying mark.
Senior Alexe Smith and junior Liz Costello qualified for the 1,500, and while sophomores Libby Bliss and Brooke Russell did so in the 800.
Sophomore Lauren Barber had the third-best time of the afternoon in the 100-meter hurdles, coming in at 14.48, to qualify for tomorrow's final.
On top of tomorrow's finals, sophomore KC Wade will wrap up her run at the heptathlon. Wade currently stands in third place after four events.