The official 2017-18 HEPS TRACK & FIELD thread

I would have to slightly disagree with this assessment that its a blip for Harvard. Gabby Thomas scored 32.5 points, nearly a third of their scoring. Yes, she's a junior, but replacing a super-dooper sprinter star like her for Harvard will be difficult. Yale has never been able to recruit another Woodward, and Cornell has not found another Maduka.

I have to agree that was a pretty pitiful performance from the Columbia men. Outside of the 1k, 800, 4x800, and 5k, the rest of meet was a disaster, they didn't even field a 4x400 team at the end. This was a team that used to be able to at least finish in the 4th-6th range just based on their ability to score multiple guys in every event from the 800 up, but now it seems like they're barely scraping by in those events, while the other events that they have apparently shifted some recruiting focus towards still are not anywhere near par for the league. It amazes me they couldn't line up one of their other 800 guys in the 500 and hope he scored a point or two. I respect Coach Ireland's desire to field a full and competitive track team, but it just seems like the process may be extremely slow, if maybe impossible given their lack of true field facilites. It looks to even be hurting the events they've been historically successful in more than he intended. Also outside of Vasbinder in the 3k, and his tremendous win in the 5k, where were the other distance guys they have that finished in the top 10 at Heps cross. I saw Zabilski was down in the 5k results, but no Thomas or Schreiner? Maybe a team focused on solely distance wasn't such a bad thing at Columbia? At least they could be penciled in for top 3 in cross and no worse than 7th in track.

and

Yes I know it's surprising for an alum to see the Big Red in 5th and I appreciate the passion but a little advice.

1) Calm down now. The Big Red women aren't winning like they did either and they largely have many of the same coaches.

2) If you are going to rip the team, please do it under the same name instead of posting twice under two different names to act like everyone is agreeing with you. That's just weak. And in your first post, you rip Durant for losing great assistants and then in your second post you say the assistants weren't any good and they don't matter anyways.

That being said, I'm not sure how he can stop a woman from having a baby, or a man from following his wife out of state once she got her PHd at Cornell or a guy from California deciding to get out up state NY and the coaching game entirely. Admittedly I'm biased as a former assistant but one of the things that I thought made the great runs in the mid-2000s possible for both the men and the women is we amazingly had the exact same coaching staff - including even volunteer assistants - for like close to a decade. That's just really rare and it can take a year or two get the recruiting down.

3) There will never ever be another run like the one we had back in the day. One of the reasons why I was fine with leaving Cornell is it was less fun in the sense that I realized we would never accomplished again what we had before. We won 8 in a row outdoors. Do you realize that's an all-time record for any NCAA sport that all 8 Ivy League men's teams compete in? In the history of the Ivy League, no men's program in any NCAA sport that is contested by all 8 schools (so ignoring wrestling) has won 8 straight outright ivy titles (Dartmouth xc did it as well but with two different head coaches). Thus you can't expect it to be close to that good.

If John Wooten came back from the dead and took over UCLA basketball, there is no way he could replicate his bball success. The same thing is true of any coach including Nathan Taylor. Things change. We've seen plenty of legends come back (Joe Gibbs Washington Redskins for example) and even they can't do it. Now don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying Taylor wasn't incredibly good - he was. I'm just saying things change.

4) Lastly, you talk of "consistent 1st place finishes". That's not totally accurate. After Cornell won 8 in a row outdoors, the reality is even under the great Nathan Taylor only won 1 of his last 5 as we awoke the angry giant in Princeton. Indoors, we won 5 of first 7 during that indoor streak but after that it was reduced to 2 of the last 6. That was hard on all of us.

My brother used to get on me for having a defeatist attitude at the end of my tenure, but I thought it was realistic. He's like, "You used to talk about how you'd take down the Tigers." And that was true, I started to think "If I do my job perfectly and they do their job perfectly, they are going to win much more often than me."

If you want to chat about this offfline, shoot me an email, I'd love to talk Ivy League track

Bill - you can also add Abbey D'Agostino/Dartmouth to that list, given how she dominated the distance events. Dartmouth kinda has something with Rothwell given her success in the sprints/hurdles/jumps but she's no D'Ags given how competitive those events are right now in the conference with Harvard's current squad.

In the post-Heps Crimson article, it was noted that a number of their athletes are injured right now or are just coming back from injury (I remember seeing something on social media about how happy the team was to get a hurdler back in time for Heps). Not sure how much injuries played a role in this past weekend, but I'm not sure how much healthy athletes will help come outdoor season as there are more field and distance events that I do not think they have the athletes to fill at this moment.

The same line in the Crimson article also noted how a number of girls left the team, but didn't specify who (I'm guessing the distance squad from last year):

I know that at least one of the walk offs was a distance runner from last year, and that at least one sprinter expected to score did not do so.

I still think Harvard is positioned relatively well for coming years. Distance is in a developmental stage now and training shifted significantly from last year, but they're already looking a little better than they looked during XC and I'd expect decent performances come outdoor. They've got a solid squad of sophomore sprinters too, so even if no individual is replacing Thomas any time soon they'll have depth in coming years.

Anyone know where to find photos from Sunday?

Shared this in another thread, but feel it's worthwhile sharing in here too:

Abby Hong's 3km win was the first ever for a Penn athlete in that event. She's also Penn's first athlete since 1988 (and second person in school history) to win more than a single event in the same Heps championship.

En route to winning their first conference title in 22 years, Penn also got their first ever wins in the weight throw (Rachel Wilson), high jump (Anna Peyton Malizia), and 500m (Uchechi Nwogwugwu - granted, this is only the fourth time they've contested this event).

The last time the team had a Heps event champion? 2012 in the 60m hurdles (Gabrielle Piper).

Athletes accepted to the NCAA Championships announced last night.

Gabrielle Thomas (Harvard) - 15th in 60m; 7th in 200m

Sarah Hardie (Columbia) - 14th in mile

Myles Marshall (Harvard) - 10th in 800m

Brown DMR- 12th

Adam Kelly (Princeton) - 11th in WT

FYI - Cha'Mia Rothwell (Dartmouth) and Simi Fajemisin (Harvard) may POSSIBLY get boosted in if coaches scratch at least one athlete as their best marks are tied with the 16th entry on the list.

Women -

http://www.rtspt.com/ncaa/d1indoor18/women_accepted.htm

Men -

http://www.rtspt.com/ncaa/d1indoor18/men_accepted.htm

This is why I love you, Rojo.

Hey peoples - any thoughts on the start of the Outdoor season so far?

Saw Princeton's Joseph Daniels ran a wind-legal 13.88 in his season opener in the HH (ties his all-condition best). Pretty impressive. I think it's 4th all-time.

A lot of the women's sprint/hurdle times are wind-aided. I with TFRRS would have a column in their performance lists if a mark is wind-aided, or just something to show the wind-speed. They list them for individual meets AND they sort out the strong wind gust marks in the Regional rankings.

Otherwise, Penn rookie Maura Kimmel broke into the all-time top 10 in both the shot put (8th) and discus (10th) and Princeton junior Adam Kelly improved his hammer mark so he's now #3 all-time.

,.. and it looks like Gabrielle Thomas (H) will make her debut this weekend at the Texas Relays. She's in the general 100m, but in the Invitational 200m, as well as the general 4x1 and 4x4. I'm curious how the Invite 200m will go, as she will be up against hurdlers Shamier Little and Sharika Nelvis.

Event 19 Women 200 Meter Dash Invitational (12)

Name Yr School Seed Time

1 Brown, Iman FR Washington

2 Daniels, Teahna JR Texas

3 Ekpone, Olivia Unattached

4 Jackson, Hannah JR Rice

5 Jones, De'Shalyn SR Northwestern St.

6 Little, Shamier Adidas

7 McGrone, Candyce Elite Perf TC

8 McKelvy, Tamea FR Texas

9 Nelvis, Sharika TG Elite

10 Smith, Rebekah SO Clemson

11 Stepter, Jaide Unattached

12 Thomas, Gabrielle JR Harvard

Outdoor champs are coming up!

Canada will once again have a group headed to the Ivy League for 18/19

Mei Mei Weston (4:29.59 1500m/9:41.56 3000m) - Harvard

Edie Wilson (25.33 200m/56.40 400m) - Dartmouth

Brooke Overholt (13.93 100mH 76.2cm/14.27 100mH 84cm/1:01.38 400mH) - Cornell

Jocelyn Chau (2:09.22 800m/4:21.90 1500m/9:25.44i 3000m) - Yale

Yale will rip up the distance events. Go Dawgs

Heps day

Not to be hyperbolic but this is the best all around penn women’s team in school history. First time penn men go over significantly over 100 in quite some time too. Fast men’s 4x400!

If by ripping it up you mean nearly laying an egg, you're correct. 12 points for Yale across both men (8pts) and women (4pts) for distance and middle distance. That has to be one of the most dismal performances for the Bulldogs in recent history. No women in the 1500m or 4x800m and only one individual men's scorer, plus multiple last place finishes.

On another note, what a performance by Penn's women, absolutely dominating the meet from start to finish!

Starting to look at the individual results and comparing them to the record books. I'm almost done with the women (haven't started the men's yet) but man, this weekend had the best 100m hurdle field in conference history.

Six of the top 10 meet best times were run this past weekend.

The top 5 finishers in the final all made the top 10 conference listing.

Check it out below - I've bolded the new additions. The meet top 10 does include preliminary times and can include a single person multiple times, while the conference top 10 is fastest time per person in their entire career

Meet Top 10

13.24, Cha’Mia Rothwell (Dartmouth, 2018)

13.35, Nicole Harrison (Princeton, 1997) ran in prelims

13.38, Karina Joiner (Harvard, 2018)

13.39, Cha’Mia Rothwell (Dartmouth, 2017)

13.44, Autumne Franklin (Harvard, 2016)

13.47, Cha’Mia Rothwell (Dartmouth, 2018) ran in prelims

13.51, Brittany Stenekes (Cornell, 2018)

13.54, Karina Joiner (Harvard, 2018) ran in prelims

13.57, Livia Gauntlett (Harvard, 2018)

13.56, Brenda Taylor (Harvard, 2001) ran in prelims

All-Meet Top 10

13.08, Nicole Harrison (Princeton, 1997)

13.24, Cha’Mia Rothwell (Dartmouth, 2018)

13.38, Karina Joiner (Harvard, 2018)

13.44, Autumne Franklin (Harvard, 2016)

13.51, Brittany Stenekes (Cornell, 2018)

13.56, Brenda Taylor (Harvard, 2001)

13.57, Livia Gauntlett (Harvard, 2018)

13.60, Breanne Bygrave (Penn, 2018)

13.66, Jade Miller (Harvard, 2017)

13.76, Jackie Modesett (Harvard, 2015)

And what more - the top 6 finishers in yesterday's final were all underclassmen (the sole senior in the final finished 7th overall).

I know the conference has gotten faster for the women in the last 10 years, but man, this hurdle final was ridiculous!

In the meantime, it's a shame that there is hardly any discussion of this conference/meet over the course of the season. I know there has been an active Heps group on this board in the past, but discussion has really diminished these last few years. The conference is getting more competitive internally AND on the national scene.