Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Track & Field Heads to Heps This Weekend
February 25, 2010 | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field
PRINCETON, N.J. (2/25/10) - Dartmouth will host the 2010 Ivy League Heptagonal Track and Field Indoor Championships on Feb. 27-28 at Leverone Fieldhouse.
Both Princeton teams are looking to knock off defending league champions Cornell. On the men's side it has been either Cornell or Princeton taking home the trophy the last 12 years. The Big Red have dominated the women's field lately, winning seven of the last eight, with the Tigers putting a crimp in their streak in 2007-08.
Fans can check out event-by-event blogging on HepsTrack.com.
Last season Princeton's David Slovenski and Duane Hynes shared Heps Athlete of the Week honors. Slovenski won the pole vault in a meet record 17-3.50, while Hynes winning the heptathlon for the second straight year, doing it with a broken foot.
Slovenski will be back for his sophomore year and is the only vaulter in the league to have gone over 16-5.00. Senior Chad Faulkner has the second-best mark the league.
Also owning the top two slots in the league are senior high jumpers Justin Frick and Ian Fox. The defending Heps champion Frick has reached 7-01.00, while Fox has topped out at 6-11.00.
Junior Dion Lehman and sophomore Isaac Serwanga are in the top three in the long jump. Serwanga will also be Princeton's best chance at winning the triple jump.
In the throws, the Tigers have a wealth of talent in senior Eric Plummer, Joel Karacozoff and junior Craig Pearce. All three have a chance to take home top honors. Plummer is the defending champion in the shot put and has won the shot put in the outdoors the last two years. Last weekend he won both the shot and the weight throw at HYP. Plummer has the best mark in the shot put in the league, by nearly two feet at 60-1.00. Pearce has thrown the weight just one time this season, last week at Heps and won the event with a throw of 63-00.75, which happens to be the best mark in the Ivy League. Karacozoff recorded a throw of 54-08.25 at HYP, a personal best and the fourth best in the league. He also ranks eighth in the weight at 55-10.25.
In the distance and middle-distance events, the Tigers return Heps 500 champion Mike Eddy, junior Kyle Soloff, sophomore Trevor Van Ackeren and freshman Nathan Mathabane. Mathabane has top three marks in the league in both the mile and the 1000-meters, while Van Ackeren ranks fourth in the mile. Soloff has won every event he has entered this season, winning two 1000-meters, two miles and one 3000-meters. Posting the second best time in the league in the 3000, is sophomore Donn Cabral. Cabral ran an 8:10.29 at The Armory.
Sophomore Austin Hollimon sports the best time in the Ivy League in the 400 at 47.03 nearly an entire second faster than the next sprinter. He has posted two NCAA provisional qualifying times in his three times out this season. Hollimon is a two-time defending Ivy outdoor champion in the 200 and 4x400 and was second in the 400 at last year's Heps. Freshman Russell Dinkins and Eddy will provide depth in the 400 as well as the 500. Dinkins has the best time in the league in the 500 at 1:01.70 and the third-best time in the 400 at 48.21.
The Tigers look to earn a victory in the 4x400, as its relay team has posted the best time in the season by nearly four seconds.
Last season the women finished second with 99 points to Cornell's 117.5, while hot Harvard was third with 79.5 points. The Tigers earned 44 of its points in the 3000 and 5000 and an addition 10 in the mile. Princeton returns much of its talent in those events with juniors Reilly Kiernan, Sarah Cummings, Ashley Higginson, sophomore Alex Banfich and senior Alexa Glencer.
In the sprints, Princeton will look towards sophomore Eileen Moran, freshmen Abidemi Adenikinju and Erin Guty to get the Tigers points.
Juniors Thanithia Billings and Emma Ruggiero make up two of the top three weight throwers in the league, while Billings will also be a contender in the shot put.
Freshman Tory Worthen has been a power in the pole vault since day one and has the best mark in the league at 13-1.50. She's backed up by two solid competitors in sophomore Lydia Arias and freshman Lauren Tauscher who also have high marks amongst their Ivy competitors.