HEPS Track and Field 2012-13

kibitzer wrote:

Not sure that this answers your question, but I was told that only three teams (of the sixteen at Heps) even entered the max-allowed 36 athletes.

I thought the fields seemed smaller than in recent years... me and some of the other media people were surprised how there were typically only two or three heats for any of the trials (yielding 14 to 19 athletes in a given event) whereas the longer distance events had closer to 30.

Honestly, somehow Cornell and Princeton have found some kind of formula that produces results AND yields consistently throughout the years. The other schools have not been able to find that yet.

I know Harvard had a lot of injured folks who did not make the trip. But perhaps all of the other schools do not have the financial support or as active alumni assistance as you might think. I know that while people were surprised of all of the coaching changes at Brown earlier this year, some people chimed in saying how the alumni need to be more supportive of their team in order to keep the coaches around.

Puzzled wrote:

Speaking of Harvard, where was Cotton? He should have been entered in the 1500, based on some comments I read earlier in this string about his 1500 performance this season. Puzzling. They always start with tons of recruits, then the rosters get decimated through attrition. Their top distance recruit last year left for Stanford after only a year. If you compare their announcement of their recruiting class in a given year, and check what's left after a couple of years, it's amazing how many athletes leave the program.

Cotton ran in the 1500 - he won heat 2 in a 3:47 and then finished 7th overall in the final. He didn't have the kick, which I'm sure is due to him just coming back from injury.

I'm surprised that there has been no commentary on the quality of the field events at the Heps.

Almost across the board we are seeing some national caliber performances that make the Heps look like a legitimate throws factory. Julia Ratcliffe (Ivy/Heps Record), Sam Mattis (Heps Record), Steven Mozia (Multi throws super talent), Robins & Gibson, Brode, Levine.

Only two Seniors in the group and two Freshmen setting standard in the league. So there will be lots of talent to enjoy for the next few years.

When was the last time the Ivy League had such a crop of standouts? The throwers deserve more love from the boards. They have performed brilliantly and are far from done yet as some are nationally ranked and could take their talents to the national stage in a few weeks.

Changes to the top-10 at Heps recordbooks in the throws:

Women:

DT:

- Tied-9th: Victoria Buhr (B), 2014, 159-8

Hammer:

- 1st: Julia Ratcliffe (Pr), 2016, 218-2 (she bested it with each one of her legal throws)

- 3rd: Lacey Craker (B), 2013, 200-4

- 8th: Adabelle Ekechukwu (H), 2014, 191-11

Javelin:

- 4th: Victoria Imbesi (Cor), 2013, 158-5

Men:

SP:

- 6th: Stephen Mozia (Cor), 2015, 61-4.75

DT:

- 1st: Sam Mattis (P), 2016, 191-5

- 8th: Michael Levine (Y), 2013, 182-5

lovetothrowlong wrote:

I'm surprised that there has been no commentary on the quality of the field events at the Heps.

Almost across the board we are seeing some national caliber performances that make the Heps look like a legitimate throws factory. Julia Ratcliffe (Ivy/Heps Record), Sam Mattis (Heps Record), Steven Mozia (Multi throws super talent), Robins & Gibson, Brode, Levine.

Only two Seniors in the group and two Freshmen setting standard in the league. So there will be lots of talent to enjoy for the next few years.

When was the last time the Ivy League had such a crop of standouts? The throwers deserve more love from the boards. They have performed brilliantly and are far from done yet as some are nationally ranked and could take their talents to the national stage in a few weeks.

Well, you can't be *greatly* surprised--given that it's a running board--right?

I was able to catch most of the throws (okay, not literally) at Heps--it was nice that the facility's setup allowed for three of the events to be contested on the infield. The women's hammer was high quality, obviously, but the men's was rather disappointing. Credit to Dickerson (especially), Levine, and Mozia for coming up with seasonal bests, though, and I got my first look at Dartmouth's Servino. Just a sophomore, with arms that look a lot like mine--yes, I *know* you don't use the arms much in the hammer--and still the Ivy list leader (though no one in the League has a 60m throw?).

Actually the best *competition* in the throwing events may have been the women's jav, though it didn't have a lot of all-time top marks. The Penn frosh, Hay (with a PR?) and Jones, were leading after the prelims, with Cornell's Dombrowski, Imbesi, and Reid following. In the fourth round, Wheeler from Penn had a big throw and pushed Reid back to sixth.

Then in the sixth round the Cornell women all PRed: Reid improved a meter and a half to resume fifth, Dombrowski matched her first-round distance, and Imbesi (we're used to sixth-round heroics from her) improved her best in this competition by nearly three meters and grabbed the lead. Hay responded with another excellent throw, but it wasn't quite enough, and Cornell came out of the last round with 16 points, which was a major blow to Columbia's team hopes. Just an outstanding competitive event.

Wow, I didn't realize that the women's jav ended up being that intense. I guess it was hard to tell from my viewpoint by the running finish line since I could not see the throwing marks board. It's too bad that there is not a reporting system in place for the field events that gives better live updating, like the system they use at NCAAs - they update a website after each throw/jump.

Overall, I'm surprised on how quiet this thread has been about Heps in general. Is it just because not many people really got a chance to follow it? Or just not that much interest in it anymore?

I meant throwing specific to the Heps. Since there had been a few previous posts regarding the throws and the throws were inclusinve in the all-important points projections it would make sense that there would be follow through in this area. Perhaps this is the wrong board to participate in for Heps or Ivy events other than running? This was my first year on this site. It was fun to follow the progression and fun chatter but it may just be the wrong place for a thrower to be for info on Heps thowing. Have fun. lovetothrowlong out.

Regarding the two posts above this one (from C/M and lttl): I think a few things are at work.

First, I haven't noticed much rehash of Heps, period--not even much about the distance races, which keyed the Princeton men's and Cornell women's team wins. For instance, HTC hasn't been updated (as near as I can tell) since Saturday night!

[And I'm under the impression that most/all Ivy coaches strongly enjoin their athletes from posting on this and other boards, at least in season. That makes sense to me: why provide "bulletin board" material for your opposition? Compare this thread's posts, for instance, with the trash talk that appears in many threads for other conferences.]

Second, most of the Ivies are about to start (or in the midst of?) final exams. The atmosphere at the League's colleges becomes rawther intense, and perhaps deters commentary even from those who are not undergrads.

Third, there's almost always more posting and speculation before the Heps meets than after--the meet results speak for themselves, mostly. (I recall that there was a bit of post-event discussion about the *weather conditions* at the 2011 Heps xc meet, but not too much about the competitions themselves.) Occasionally a team's performance in an event area may be dissected.

[For instance, anyone remember when Princeton was being excoriated for "bombing" in the men's distance races? Yeah, haven't seen any of those posts for a few years. And an argument can be made that the Cornell women's performances in the throws and vertical jumps this year assured their win--and that the men's performances in the same events (while certainly good overall!) were not at the level they realistically needed, in order to offset PU's dominance in longer races.)]

Fourth, we "traditionally" rely on shazzuy to handle previews and postmortems of the throws--his posts are typically so thorough and informative (and eagerly awaited) that we may feel a little hesitant to intrude on his franchise. But you, lttl, seem to be knowledgeable, and it would be enjoyable to hear what you have to say!

And looking ahead, would love to get your impressions of the incoming men's/women's throwing groups: Winkler, your nephew, everybody! The complete lists of incoming frosh (college coaches are only allowed to post such lists once a year) may not be forthcoming for a while, but there are certainly partial lists on other boards.

What I don't get is why neither HepsTrack nor IvyLeagueSports have posted anything about Heps after the first-day results. The Saturday coverage was fine, but then nothing. No recap, no videos, nothing. Does anyone know what happened?

rudyl wrote:

What I don't get is why neither HepsTrack nor IvyLeagueSports have posted anything about Heps after the first-day results. The Saturday coverage was fine, but then nothing. No recap, no videos, nothing. Does anyone know what happened?

I, too, find this perplexing.

Anyway, I was able to attend part of the meet and thought the throws were exciting overall. Though Mozia made the men's shot look easy with a smooth 18.71, it actually was a terrific competition. (If you take a look at the tfrrs list--

--you can see how many seasonal bests were thrown at Heps.) Harvard's top three came up big in the final rounds, with Brode flirting with 60ft on his fifth throw and closing to about a half-meter behind Mozia. None of the three Cantabs graduates, by the way--in fact none of the six scorers does, and only one of the other six competitors was a senior.

The men's javelin was also fun. Though Rob Robbins, apparently protecting an injury, only had one measured attempt, a 69m safety throw(!), the battle behind him was terrific. Again, most of the scorers got their top mark in the final rounds, and Gilson's massive PR, all the way out to 67.65, definitely got the attention of a *lot* of people in the stands. Gilson is listed as the only senior in that entire field, so this event should also just get hotter in the coming year(s).

Speaking of the coming year, the addition of Winkler should make that Cornell crew extremely formidable--yet I think Harvard could still come close to matching their scoring, especially if they can pick up a javelin thrower or three: I believe both squads scored 26 points in the throws at this year's Heps.

Videos are here - http://www.youtube.com/user/ivyleaguesports?feature=mhum

Well, Brett Hoover is trying to balance out time between Armory Track (which he gets paid) and Hepstrack (all volunteer), and with him being asked to help with the announcements this past weekend, he hasn't been able to update pretty much anything. AND it looked like he had to cover some Sports Emmy awards last night for Armory.

http://www.armorytrack.com/News/Post/a-night-of-stars

Yes, I know it is late in the coverage on HTC - one of the downsides of a) being volunteer and b) not having enough people volunteering for coverage.

I don't know about the League though.

On the distance side, Princeton and Columbia really seem to be creating a huge divide. Collectively, they seemed to dominate the longer races. They went

800m 1,2,3,5 (top 6 score)

1500m 1,4

3000mSC 1,3,6

5000m 1,2,3,5,7

10k 1,2,3,4,5,6,7

4 x 8 1,2

CUPU wrote:

On the distance side, Princeton and Columbia really seem to be creating a huge divide. Collectively, they seemed to dominate the longer races. They went

800m 1,2,3,5 (top 6 score)

1500m 1,4

3000mSC 1,3,6

5000m 1,2,3,5,7

10k 1,2,3,4,5,6,7

4 x 8 1,2

You're talking men, I take it.

And yes, they surely do have a stranglehold on those events--mirrored by their performance in recent Heps cross-country meets.

Were it not for Columbia's typical dearth of field points at Heps (but their hammer guy *won* last weekend), they would be a consistent contender for team titles in track and field, as well.

Columbia men could also get some more sprinters/hurdlers.

Funny enough, Dickerson's hammer title is the first hammer title in Columbia's program history.

IvyHep wrote:

Videos are here -

http://www.youtube.com/user/ivyleaguesports?feature=mhum

Thanks for the link!

There are links to some *great* photos from the meet at HTC.

I don't know how many people saw this on the front page this morning, but Peter Callahan WILL be using his 5th year of eligibility - at New Mexico.

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2013/05/the-1-recruit-in-the-land-signs-with-new-mexico/

May even get a 6th if NCAA allows.

What would he be studying while he's there though, I wonder. There isn't anything on the Princeton TF roster about what he is studying as an undergrad. Any ideas? Could it be just the general "sports management"-like degree that many Ivy alumni have opted when they did the grad school competition (I know some at Texas and Oregon have done that)?

Took me a while, but I just sort of realized that exactly three women accounted for more than 60 of Cornell's points at Heps.

That's not really a question of "depth," is it? (Though I grant that two of them were in a couple of shared events.)

Meanwhile, after the heavy event loads of last week I suspect there will be massive "defections" from ECAC/IC4A this weekend--though a few elites will need to protect their top-48 status for Regionals. There should also be a number of people who didn't make their school's squad for Heps.