The men and women of indoor track and field competed at the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships held at Harvard this past weekend, with the men’s team finishing fourth and the women’s finishing eighth.
“The atmosphere at Heps is difficult to describe in words,” said co-captain Olivia Mickle ’13. “Not only is this a championship meet — it’s a meet against the universities we have competed against for decades.”
The men’s team took home two first-place individual finishes throughout the weekend en route to a fourth place finish, with a score of 58 total points. Ned Willig ’16 captured the 1000-meter title with a time of 2:25.53, while teammates Evan Weinstock ’14 and Peter Rhodes ’15 took the top two places in the Heptathlon. Each victory earned Brown a maximum score of 10 points.
Co-captain Kenny Thompson ’13 earned the silver medal in the triple jump with a distance of 15.05 meters.
“Cornell and Princeton have depth that we don’t, so we’re not quite at a place where we can compete with them in team scores,” Thompson said. “But to finish in the top half of the league is a significant accomplishment, and I think we have a lot more points to come in outdoor.”
John Spooney ’14 took fourth place in the 400-meter dash with a time of 48.84 seconds.
“There is a lot of pride in being a track and field athlete in the Ivy League, and all of that pride is shown at Heps,” Spooney said.
Henry Tufnell ’15 also took fourth place in the 800-meter dash with a time of 1:52:85.
“I was very pleased to be able to contribute to the team both in the open 800 and the 4 x 800-meter relay,” Tufnell said. “It was a great feeling to be able to repay Coach Springfield for all the hard work he has put in the coaching process. On a personal level, it was my first time to really make an impact at an event.”
The women’s team was missing several top performers for Heps and struggled more than the men’s team.
Mickle, who took sixth place in the 5000-meter run, used her experience at Heps to learn and prepare for the outdoor season.
“I was disappointed in my performance this weekend,” Mickle said.
Although I gave it my best effort, I still learned a lot tactically from the competition.”
Tess Plant-Thomas ’13 noted this weekend was dificult for the women to stomach.
“I was fairly satisfied with my performance,” Plant-Thomas said. “But the women’s side in general has so much talent and potential that the weekend was definitely frustrating.”
Despite their struggles at Heps, the women are continuing to look forward.
“It’s frustrating, but it made me incredibly eager for outdoor season,” Plant-Thomas said, “when I think we’ll be able to show a little more what our program is about.”
Co-captain Lacey Craker ’13, who placed third in the women’s weight throw with a distance of 18.13 meters, also has high expectations for outdoors.
“As a team, we need to take any disappointment from this Heps and transpose it into something useful to make sure we’re as prepared as we can be for outdoor Heps,” Craker said. “Outdoor season plays to both my personal event strengths and my teammates’ event strengths.”
The teams will both travel to Boston this weekend, where the women will participate in the ECAC Championship and the men will compete in the IC4A Championship.
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