HEPS 2012 INDOOR

Dartmouth-Columbia-Yale tri-meet is tomorrow, so we'll get to see some good head-to-head results.

I wish we did more tri-meets like this. I guess the Harvard Challenge will be something similar as it will be Harvard and Brown versus 2 Patriot League teams. And there is Harvard-Yale-Princeton on Valentine's Day weekend.

Didn't there used to be a Princeton-Penn-Columbia tri-meet?

2 words: Kyle Merber

swddxsd wrote:

2 words: Kyle Merber

I hope CoachW sets it up so Merber has a run at the Ivy AllTime Lists at 400-600i-800-(1000i*)-1500-M-3000i-3000h even

*I believe he went 2:22.6 today

Anyone have results for the Dartmouth-Columbia-Yale tri meet?

Abbey D'Agostino ran a solo 4:38 mile, going 67-2:21-3:34-4:38 to set a new Dartmouth school record and facility record.

Very impressive time on the flat and slow Dartmouth track in a tri-meet.

Wow, congrats to abbey!

Cornell hosted a six-team meet:

Heptathlon:

http://cornellbigred.com/documents/2012/1/21/Upstate_Challenge_Heptathlon_Results.pdf?id=4439

Pentathlon:

http://cornellbigred.com/documents/2012/1/21/Upstate_Challenge_Pentathlon_Results.pdf?id=4440

Other results:

http://cornellbigred.com/documents/2012/1/21/2012_Upstate_Challenge_Results.pdf?id=4438

It's far too early to try to score a virtual meet, but a quick look at the Ivy performance list (

http://www.tfrrs.org/lists/787.html

) suggests a few things:

The women's meet will continue to have more parity. The big three indoors may still be Princeton, Cornell, and Columbia, but others could break up that group.

*Several years of excellent recruiting have given Harvard a lot of strength on the track (mostly frosh) and in the field (mostly upperclasswomen). They have a balanced squad with the potential to score well in almost every event, except perhaps the distances. This is a really dangerous team.

*Dartmouth is more lopsided, but has several opportunities to score first-place points--and much more than just D'Agostino. Though she likely could contribute major points in three events (based on current form), the Green have a lot of backup in the middle-/distance events and may not need her to do it. Strength in the throws and pentathlon should help offset gaps in the jumps/hurdles.

*Another up-and-comer is Penn. They have a hole in the distance events--whose points will probably be widely distributed anyway--but the Quakers have contenders for the win in all the races at least through 800m, and potential scorers in most of the field events.

*Both Yale and, somewhat surprisingly, Brown have individual highlights but are not (yet, at least) showing the event coverage to be competitive with the other teams.

So far, last year's top three teams are showing some (some) vulnerability.

*Princeton is not demonstrating great depth, but has individuals to contend for a top-three finish in every race on the track and the potential to score big points in the jumps. Weakness in the throws/pentathlon should not keep them from being favored to defend their title, particularly because:

*Columbia, which came oh-so-close last year, hasn't had Sharay Hale compete yet. If she's out of the Heps, that would be a major blow; but the Lions, who haven't done much yet in the distances, still have outstanding scoring potential in the field and could once again finish as a top three team even without her.

*Cornell scored in every event at last year's indoor meet--had any team ever done that before?--but was contending for wins in only a few events, and finished a well-beaten third. (The 2011 results:

http://hepstrack.com/championships/indoor-heps/womens-indoor-heps-team-scores/the-2010s/2011-2/

) This year's squad also seems to lack truly dominant individuals so far--with the major exception of Melissa Hewitt--but again has excellent event coverage, and could improve from last year's finish.

Bottom line:

Some of the Ivy schools have not yet been in session. As they move into the heart of the season over these next few weekends--and particularly as their distance runners are unleashed--the dope sheets should change. But as of right now, to me it looks like Princeton to repeat; Columbia/Cornell very close behind; and *at least* one other team pushing those three very hard.

On the men's side, picking a favorite right now is pretty easy: Princeton. With the possible exceptions of the 60, HJ, throws, and heptathlon, the Tigers have the potential for *multiple* scorers in every individual event, plus the personnel for some dynamite relays. This is a very fine team: talented, well balanced, deep.

As usual, the only squad with any shot against them would seem to be Cornell. The Big Red are showing their usual strength in the heptathlon, and seem to have more depth/quality in the throws than last year; but they're not yet showing their usual dominance in the jumps (other than HJ) and don't seem to have many potential scorers in the distances (granting that it's still early for all the League's distancemen). In the shorter races (with the exception of the 60), Cornell doesn't seem likely to score more than Princeton.

While the other squads seem to be closing the gap a bit, none seems to have the potential to threaten either of the Big Two, and Princeton might once again outscore the Other Six combined.

*Columbia can do some serious damage on the track, from the long sprints on up (including relays), but shows little potential in the field; they still should move up from last year's sixth place.

*Dartmouth has better coverage of the events, but so far nothing close to a league-leading performance. They could score quite a few minor places, but don't seem to have a star or two to help them repeat in third.

*Harvard has seen limited action, but so far shows little scoring potential from events other than the throws and hurdles; at present they seem unlikely to repeat last year's fourth-place finish.

*Penn has Reynolds in the high jump, and improving long-sprint/mid-distance groups that might score well (more likely in the relays than individually).

*Brown and Yale seem fairly evenly matched, each with one or two individuals who could place very high, and others who could chip away at minor placings; at least one of these teams may move out of the cellar. Yale seems to have the edge in the relays right now, but it's early days.

According to the Armory Track site, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, and Cornell should have competitors at the Armory this Saturday evening. Should be a good meet!

I was at the meet mentioned above. It was scored; unfortunately, there's the usual lag in the Armory's posting results and scores online. Impressions only:

Princeton men seem to have won the meet, with the Cornell men second or third (out of about a dozen teams). Most of PU's better guys, if not quite all, seemed to be there. The 1000 didn't look like a very good race, until the times came up: Callahan 2:20.78! Stilin and Cabral ran the 3000, with the former looking outstanding at ~7:56; Donn seemed to be running a little (only a little, though) heavy-legged. Overall, the Tiger men didn't seem to be going for max points in the meet, but still had things under control, with solidly competitive performers in almost every event; the Cornell men didn't do much in the mid-/distances, but were very representative everywhere else.

Cornell looked like the winner for the women. The three who ran the 5000 at BU on Friday--Kellner and Hartung for Cornell, Banfich for Princeton--didn't compete at the Armory, but otherwise the squads appeared close to complete. (Video for that race, btw:

http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/247792-2012-BU-Terrier-Invitational/video/586842-W-5k-H01-Katie-Matthews-auto-BU-Terrier-2012

) Princeton's women seemed to be about one-deep in many events, but given the limitation on squad numbers at Heps (~35?) it doesn't take much more than one *good* athlete (in each event) to win. Cornell, with larger numbers, was beating them fairly soundly at this meet, however.

Harvard women were a definite presence, and the Harvard men were noticeable in several events. H had a super group at the throws--lots of enthusiasm and encouragement, great atmosphere. At the throws (well, at least at the shot; I left as the weight throws, which wouldn't finish until well after midnight, were in progress), Cornell continued to impress, especially their frosh Mozia, who won the SP at 59-9 (according to the announcer). Mozia has broken the freshman record of the Big Red's vaunted Dave Doupe.

Columbia seemed to have a partial squad--not much of an indication there, as their women competed at the Mets the night before:

http://www.gocolumbialions.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=48362&SPID=4657&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=205369909&DB_OEM_ID=9600

I'd say we still need at least another weekend before anyone could hope to dope out the Heps. Not everyone (still!) has competed in his/her likely Heps events, esp. in the longer races; and some schools have been having finals. OTOH, the Heps are only four weeks away; by next week we're likely to have seen almost all of those who'll be there, and most will have posted marks in their parade events (understanding that there may be multiple entrants with no season's mark in the distance races and, particularly, the multi-events).

If/when the Armory posts tonight's results, I'll post the link.

kibitzer wrote:

If/when the Armory posts tonight's results, I'll post the link.

Results can be found at

HepsDad wrote:

kibitzer wrote:

If/when the Armory posts tonight's results, I'll post the link.

Results can be found at

http://www.tfrrs.org/results/22484.html

Sorry i posted the link to the first Saturday Night meet (Jan. 14)....here is the correct link -

Thanks for the results link! In the light of day (or at least the cold gray dawn of the morning after), I can see that I didn't give Harvard, especially their men, enough credit. While I was watching them at the throws (nice WT from Columbia's Duncan Dickerson btw), evidently the Cantabs were taking care of business in a lot of events that I wasn't following as closely, including a League-leading 500 from John Dingus.

I was impressed by the Columbia women's marks at their meet on Friday night--the first time they've won a Mets t&f title, after many years of dominating the Mets xc meet. With Hale or not, the Lions obviously have a lot of Heps scoring potential.

On the other hand, the League's relays (both sexes) have only been showing spotty performances so far--in some of the baton events, teams might not put their all-star groups together until the Heps meet itself. At the Heps last year, for instance, Columbia ran 8:47 for the women's 4x800 and and that was only good for sixth; this year, no Ivy team has yet broken nine minutes!

I feel you can't really use the relays for much prediction right now as the majority of those relays are just people getting the extra speed workout in. If anything, I think they can show the depth of the teams if they have multiple relays running at the same time showing the same/similar times (Cornell did this a few weeks ago at one of their meets). Those teams can just add in their top people for Heps itself and you could have a very different outcome.

Anywho, top six performances listed for each event now that Heps are less than a month away. No relays or multis included. The distance events can change drastically as most of these events have not had their best runners compete yet.

http://hepstrack.com/blog/2012/01/31/looking-at-the-lists/

I'm REALLY curious on how the men's shot put is going to go at Heps. Two frosh have both thrown further than 59 feet and they have the potential to do even better.

Dave Slovenski hasn't come close to the pole vault 17-3.75 he set in December, and he was beaten last weekend by both Nico Weiler and Peter Roach at the Armory. Weiler and Roach are currently 2nd and 3rd respectively. Weiler is also coming back from a year off.

Sharay Hale is out for the year as she is recovering from foot surgery. Austin Hollimon is also taking the year off to train for the 400m HURDLES for the Olympics.

I think Melissa Hewitt could have the edge over Eileen Moran for the women's 200m (I'm not sure about the 60m as I don't know who has the better start).

Has anyone seen anything from Montez Blair of Cornell since he jumped 7-3.5 in December? I don't remember seeing his name anywhere since then. Maalik Reynolds has tied his indoor PR at 7-3 two weeks ago.

Any other thoughts?

Merber vs. Callahan in the mile at heps is going to be crazy

Moran beat Hewitt, mano a mano (or pie a pie, I suppose), at the Armory on Saturday. [

] From my angle it looked like Hewitt's superior, umm, benchpress ability had given her the win, but Moran's lean actually carried the day by .02.

Not clear who might triumph in a 200, though Hewitt will be more familiar with Barton Hall's flat track; Caldwell (Columbia) absolutely should be in that mix, as well. And Cornell's frosh, the Woodford twins, are the real deal, though they ran a bit like freshmen (seemed a little tentative) on Saturday.

Blair won the HJ at the Armory, jumping 2.14; his teammate Chris Arlinghaus had a beautiful clearance at 2.10 in the same competition. I believe Blair has been working on a variety of events since setting his HJ mark in December; perhaps he'll focus back in on HJ as the Heps approach.

Fantastic men's shot competition at the same meet. Harvard's frosh Glauser took the lead with a 17.80m put in the second round, then added to it by passing 18m (and 59ft) in the fifth. Mozia came back in the sixth with 18.21m, just three inches shy of 60 feet. Mozia has now put the college shot farther than his HS outdoor PR with the 12lb shot.

Columbia's Waverly Neer and Aryn Foland are entered to run the mile at the New Balance games Saturday. Look for some fast times