Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Men's Track Leads at Heps After Day 1
February 28, 2010 | Men's Track and Field
HANOVER, N.H. (2/27/10) - The Princeton men's track and field team is in first place after day one of the Ivy League Indoor Track and Field Heptagonal Championships. The Tigers have 44 points, 20 more points that defending league champion Cornell.
In third place is Brown with 14, while Columbia, Harvard and Dartmouth all have 10 and Yale and Penn trailing with six each.
Senior Eric Plummer defended his title in the shot put, throwing to 17.64 meters (57-10.50). The senior has dominated the league shot put, winning the title indoor and outdoor, the last four times out. Senior Joel Karacozoff also earned points in the event with a fifth-place throw of 16.35 meters (53-07.75).
Sophomore David Slovenksi won the pole vault for the second straight year, clearing 5.10 meters (16-08.75), his best mark of the season. Teammate senior Chad Faulker also reached his best mark of the season at 5.00 meters (16-04.75) to take second place in the event.
Junior Dion Lehman placed third in the long jump reaching 7.31 meters (23-11.75), his second-best mark of the season.
Rounding out the point scorers on day one was sophomore Donn Cabral. The sophomore took second in the 3000-meter run, getting around the track in 8:34.46.
Seven preliminaries were also held on day one. Princeton led with 13 finals qualifiers with Cornell right behind with 12. Columbia has 9, Harvard 6, Dartmouth 5, Penn 5, Brown 4 and Yale 4.
Princeton had three runners qualify for the mile, which will feature 10 finalists. Junior Mark Amirault had the best time in the prelims at 4:13.35, nearly two seconds faster than the second qualifier. Sophomore Trevor Van Ackeren and freshman Nathane Mathabane also qualified.
Mathabane will also run in the 1000-meter run finals along with Kyle Soloff.
Adam Thayer and Ivan Charbonneau will represent the Tigers in the 60-meter hurdles and 60-meter dash, respectively.
Sophomore Austin Hollimon had the best time the 400 prelims at 48.80. He'll be joined by Ricky Kearney in the finals.
Junior Mike Eddy and freshman Russell Dinkins had the best preliminary times in the 500 at 1:03.83 and 1:04.36. The will be joined by six other competitors in the finals.
Freshman Peter Callahan led all runners in the 800-meters with a time of 1:52.01. He will be joined by Jeff Carbonella in the finals. Carbonella just squeaked into the finals ahead of Brown's Erik Berg by 0:00.004 of a second.
In one of the biggest surprises of the day, senior Justin Frick is in second place in the heptathlon. This is the first time Frick has ever attempted the seven-event series. After four events Frick has 2862 points with the 60-meter hurdles, pole vault and 1000 still remaining. He was first in the high jump, his specialty, to help him sit in second place.
Princeton will look to maintain its lead in the team standings when day two will begins tomorrow, Feb. 28 at 10:30 a.m.