The official HEPS track and field thread, 2015-2016

Its amazing how static the top of the league has been on the men's side. After Penn's 2002 win, teams other than Princeton or Cornell have scored over 100 points just twice, Penn in 2004 and Harvard in 2014, both outdoors. This is with more points available outdoors too - no Navy, the multi, and now even a 4x800.

It would take a miracle situation (similar to 2002) for Penn to win this year. Not impossible, just improbable.

Worth noting that Mattis is not a huge guy: listed at 6-1 and (now) 245, though he certainly weighed less in earlier years. Some (relatively) "smaller" guys take longer to adjust to the college implements.

OTOH Stephen Mozia, formerly of Cornell, isn't terribly tall either, but possibly adjusted to the college weights a bit more readily.

I watched/shot the mens and womens Jav and Hammer the official used laser measuring devices rather than tape measures...not sure if they are fool proof but the measurements were quick and they werent struggling with 50-60m of tape. The winds were light to moderate which would have been more of a tailwind for the Jav throwers and a primarily a crosswind to the discus throwers...

I think some people were questioning the use of the laser measuring devices at IAAF Indoor Worlds a few weekends ago, but it was for the long jump and not the throws...

PennPhotog wrote:

I watched/shot the mens and womens Jav and Hammer the official used laser measuring devices rather than tape measures...not sure if they are fool proof but the measurements were quick and they werent struggling with 50-60m of tape.

I personally would be very unhappy with a school record's not being measured with a tape. I would very much want a mark with (potentially) much greater significance measured with one. How hard would it be to put a mark at the spot, then use a tape measure later? The competition wouldn't be disrupted; at the same time, any questions would be nipped in the bud.

ladedah wrote:

I think some people were questioning the use of the laser measuring devices at IAAF Indoor Worlds a few weekends ago, but it was for the long jump and not the throws...

With the laser devices being used for the LJ (as they were at Worlds; AFAIK they still used tape for the shot at iWorlds), you have the problem of people "grazing" the sand with their hand or whatever which would be picked up by the laser, so the marks can sometimes be worse than expected. I think this was the source of many of the iWorlds problems.

If you're using a laser to measure the shot / discus you don't really have that problem. And to whoever said I underestimated Mattis above, that really wasn't what I was trying to do; all I said was that he was inconsistent at one point but things seem to be going great for him now. Considering conditions (both weather-wise and physiologically) weren't perfect that weekend, I'm excited to see what he can do later this season, and I think it will be very special.

He's entered in the shot, discus, and hammer at the Penn Classic this weekend so we'll hopefully get some more info on his form then. Interestingly, Awad is also making his season debut (he opted out of the more low-key home opener last weekend) at 1500m, though I don't think we'll learn much more about him until he runs the 5K at Stanford next weekend which he's entered in. Supposedly all the 1500 / mile stuff in the winter has just been setting up for his true strength in the longer distances, so if he can be 3rd in the NCAA in an off-event it really makes you wonder what kind of 5K shape that translates to.

Men's entries:

Women's entries:

Stanford entries:

With some top performers absent, Cornell nevertheless won both sides of a meet at Cal Riverside:

http://finishedresults.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/UCRF.htm

Results don't seem to be up on TFRRS yet.

Looks like the usual mix of first-meet marks, with some people in "off" events. Hairston (m) and Radoslav (w) won their 400H races handily, and the 4x100 squads were within a half-second of their winning times from last year's Heps.

Hey, did you know that this year is the 40th installment of the Ivy women's (outdoor) t&f championship? I was at the first--hope to see this one, too.

Peter Farrell - the only coach the women at Princeton have ever known - is indeed calling it a career after 39 years on the job.We received the following release from Princeton this afternoon:

Additionally, there is a great piece on Farrell on TigerBlog - the official blog of Princeton University athletics where Farrell is compared to Hall of Fame basketball coach Pete Carril.

I was an undergrad at Princeton--a junior--in 1978, the year that Pete Farrell started the women's track team. My girlfriend at the time was a member of that team. It was a startup in every sense of the word. Nobody who gazes down at the thing called "women's track" now, almost four decades later, can imagine how DIY it was at the time. My GF was a crew jock, not a runner, but her father was a marathoner with the NYRR and so...well, SOMEBODY had to be on the team, and so she became a part of it. She was game, but heavy thighed, full-chested, not very fast. I watched her run one race in Jadwin Gym that winter of '78. The women's track thing was almost a joke, but they were definitely jocks and nobody was laughing.

I believe that Lynn Jennings arrived the following fall. I watched her run one XC workout. She left everybody in the dust. She was no joke. And it was on.

Not sure if Jennings is the best person to mention here as she was miserable during her Princeton experience. I've heard he is way better coach now than when he started.

so with Farrell's retirement are they're not going to fold up the program? ;)

I must correct the above posts!

Peter has done wonderful things for his program and for the Ivy League as a whole, as I've said before, but Peter Farrell was NOT the first women's t&f/xc coach at Princeton. That distinction belongs to Bill Farrell (no relation, as near as I know), who IIRC was the one that actually started the women's program and coached it for some years. It is not the case that Peter started the team from nothing; Bill and the women whom he coached had laid a decent foundation.

It was Bill Farrell who took the Tigers to the first women's Ivy Championship t&f meet, which we hosted at Cornell in 1977. His Princeton women placed third, which is where Peter's first squad also finished, the following year.

Peter may have been the first paid women's coach at Princeton. But simply not being paid (Peter Fox Smith of Dartmouth and I weren't either!) is not a valid reason for denying Bill Farrell the recognition that he deserves.

This spring does indeed mark the 40th edition of the Ivy women's outdoor championships, which I believe Princeton will be hosting. What a wonderful thing it would be if both Peter AND Bill could be honored at that time for their contributions to Princeton and the League.

I see that the meet Cornell was planning to host today has been snowed IN: they're going to hold it in Barton Hall.

http://cornellbigred.com/news/2016/4/7/womens-track-field-womens-track-and-field-moves-meet-to-barton-hall.aspx

I must say that I can't wait to see what the performances in the indoor 2K steeplechase are!

Thank you Mr Page for this correction. I was an undergraduate at Princeton at the time Bill Farrell was the so-called 'volunteer' coach of women's track and cross. This is not to take away from Peter Farrell at all, not at all, just a historical accuracy and recognition of Bill Farrell's dedication and pioneering at the time.

Great pickup from those that were there in that seemingly lost year of '77.

Hopefully Princeton and the LR front page header will get this corrected to make the distinction.

gonchar wrote:

Hopefully Princeton and the LR front page header will get this corrected to make the distinction.

Good catch, gonchar--I hadn't seen the front page.

In fairness to LRC: They probably just went with the misleading Princeton press release. But they should know better now--in fact I'll email them, given that they probably can't monitor every post on every thread.

As for PU: I'd hope that they'd make some kind of correction, but won't hold my breath. I'm not a cynic (I don't think I could have gotten the Cornell team and the Ivy meets started, if I were!), but it's possible that the time of no-paid-coach-for-the-women is not a period that Princeton would want to revisit or acknowledge--you know, given that Title IX passed in 1972, and Peter (aka paid coaching) didn't arrive until 1977.

I'd love to be wrong, though, and to see Bill Farrell get some recognition from PU. He was and is a good guy.

--Greg Page

Credit where it's due: LRC has corrected its front-page article. Very quick response, and much appreciated!

Thanks for the email greg. We couldn't know as we were 4 in 1977!!

Very good all around. Being in Jersey, in Princeton in '77 holds a special place in my heart- my breakout year in HS. Amazingly, the State HS track Champs were held that Spring in the old Palmer Stadium at Princeton as well! Not sure it ever was again.. A beautiful track venue if there ever was one, the classic horseshoe, even better than Wallace Wade at Duke.

The story of Bill Farrell's unpaid year at Princeton is fascinating..great material for a nice piece in a magazine at least. I do agree it may not be something Princeton really wants to highlight..