Tigers Seeks Fourth Consecutive Indoor Title, Triple Crown Possibility Alive at #IvyHeps

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Tigers Seeks Fourth Consecutive Indoor Title, Triple Crown Possibility Alive at #IvyHeps

February 22, 2018 | Men's Track and Field

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A dominating win by the Princeton men's cross country team in October has the rest of the track & field program ready to follow suit and as the Tigers have the first piece in place to win a Triple Crown.

Princeton has won the last three Ivy League Indoor Heptagonal Championships and incredibly has won or have taken second at every indoor Heps for the last 24 years.

SPRINTS & HURDLES
Princeton returns its sprinting tandem of senior Carrington Akosa and junior Charlie Volker. The pair have gone 1-2 in the 60 meters the last two years. Akosa has the fastest time in the league with a school record of 6.72 just last weekend. All four times he has run the event this year he has clocked under 6.80 – a mark no other in the league has been able to get under. Akosa is the reigning 60 champion and was second in both 2016 and 2015. Volker who was second last year and the champion in 2016 has the sixth best time in the league with a 6.86 and has a PR of 6.73. A third option in the short sprints is sophomore Daniel Afolabi who has the seventh best time in the league with a 6.97.

Akosa and Volker look to bring even more points in the 200. Akosa is the favorite with a league best time of 21.34 that he ran at HYP last month. Last year Akosa ran the prelims but was unable to run in the final. He won the event in 2015 and 2016. Last year Volker stepped in took second in the event and has a 21.97 this year to rank in the top-15 in the league. Another option is senior Josh Freeman who clocked a PR of 22.08 this season but normally specializes in the 400.

Freeman has scored in the last two 400s, taking third last year and fifth in 2016. He has a top-10 time in the league with a 48.63 and has a PR of 47.02. Sophomore Connor Matthews also also a top-10 time with a PR of 48.62 from HYP this year.

In the 60-meter hurdles, sophomore Joey Daniels will vie for the win after claiming the 110 outdoors last year and taking fourth last year indoors. He has the second-best time in the league with a 7.95 from the Fasttrack National Invite and is one of just three hurdlers in the league that has clocked under 8.00 seconds.

MIDDLE DISTANCE & DISTANCE
Princeton has scored in the last four 500 Heps races but all the scorers have since graduated leaving the event in the hands of sophomore Gab Montefalcone and junior Cole Bransford. The pair has the best times of the Tigers are 1:04.60 and 1:05.42, respectively. In the 800, senior Garrett O'Toole has shown he can cut mileage as a distance runner and put up great numbers in the event. He has the seventh best time in the league with a 1:51.27 from the Villanova Invite. Freshman Sam Ellis is fourth in the league with a 1:50.98 and also has the seventh-best time in the 1000 at 2:24.60. Senior Noah Kauppila took second in the 1,000 last year and has the fourth-best time in the league this year with a 2:23.16. He won the 1,000 in 2016 and was fourth in 2014. Kauppila also sports the second-best time in the mile with a 4:01.20 with O'Toole having the ninth best time at 4:05.40. Could be an interesting scenario to see which event Kauppila and O'Toole will battle for or if they will try for the double.

Based on success in distance running this the Tigers has options in the 3,000 and 5,000. Senior William Paulson and sophomore Gannon Willcutts both have top-10 times in the the 3,000 at 8:12.53 and 8:12.60, respectively. Freshman Matt Grossman isn't far back, coming within three seconds of those times.

Dominating the 5,000 category, Princeton sports the top four times in the league. Sophomore Conor Lundy, who took second in the race a year ago has the best time this year with a 14:13.666. Grossman follows with a 14:14.20, then senior Rob Stone at 14:15.41 and Willcutts at 14:15.64.

JUMPS
Senior August Kiles looks for this third consecutive indoor pole vault title. He ranks second in the league with a 5.30 from the Fasttrack National Invite and has a PR of 5.42. Freshmen Noah Hurley and Jack Cahillane rank seventh and eighth in the league at 4.93 and 4.90 respectively. Another three-man duo comes in the high jump with freshmen Jeffrey Hollis, Jeffrey Lee-Heidenreich and junior Andrew Diehl. Hollis is fourth with a 2.08, Diehl fifth with a 2.05 and Lee-Heidenreich eighth with a 2.04. Diehl was fifth a year ago with Xavier Bledsoe '17 winning the last two years.

In the horizontal jumps, senior Lane Russell has the top mark in the triple jump with a PR of 15.79. He's been a three-time scorer in the event, both indoor and outdoor. Junior Stefan Amokwandoh's 14.88 ranks fifth in the league and was the runner-up a year ago.

Sophomore Jesse Thibodeau competed in his first long jump last weekend at the Princeton Invitational and vaulted to third in the Ivy League with a mark of 7.30. Freshman Gilron Tsabkevich has claimed a 7.19 to rank fifth in the long jump in the league.

THROWS
Junior Adam Kelly has the best mark in the weight throw amongst the Ivies with a 22.09 (72-5.75). He has been the runner up the last two years behind Cornell's Rudy Winkler. Senior Mitchel Charles has the third best throw with an 18.72 thrown just this past weekend at Jadwin Gym. Charles also leads the league in the shot put with a 17.23 – the only thrower to clear 17 meters. He won the event last year and was the runner-up in 2016. Freshman Kelton Chastulik's 16.48 is the fourth best in the league.

MULTIS
Princeton's multis were key to the team's outdoor Heps win last year. The corps returns for the heptathlon this year. Sophomore Justice Dixon was fifth last year in the heptathlon and again in the decathlon. Freshman Harry Lord was third in the decathlon last spring and has the experience to score here as well. Add to that senior James Burns and junior Ryan Ozminkowski and the Tiger foursome could be a force in the heptathlon.

RELAYS
Princeton had major success in the relays last year. The Tigers improved on an eighth-place finish in the 4x400 in 2016 to win the event last year. This year Princeton has a season-best of 3:16.74 from HYP. Entering the weekend the Tigers have the second best time the 4x800, just one second off of Harvard with a 7:41.81. Princeton has finished second in the 4x800 the last two Heps. The Tigers sent its distance medley relay to Notre Dame last weekend to get it prepped for Heps and the group sports a 9:35.02, the second best in the league. Princeton has taken fourth in the event the last two years.