Long Road to Ithaca wrote:
That was Cornell's meet to lose and they lost it. All credit to the Princeton squad but this one must particularly sting up in Ithaca.
Yeah, they were looking pretty good after Day I (though weren't where they wanted to be), but things just did not work out on Sunday: the sprint finals--all the individual flat races, really--did not nearly match their hopes. And though Mozia was a very bright spot (an unlooked-for 4th in the hammer, creditable 2d in disc, and dominating win in the shot, offsetting his indoor disappointment), their throwers overall were underwhelming.
It's not that Princeton pulled a rabbit out of a hat. They had performances that, for the most part, were about as expected (nice discus for McCullough, though); the Big Red just did not produce consistently. OTOH the fact they were in contention at all to win the meet, when taking a goose egg in every race longer than 800m, speaks well for their competitiveness.
Next year? Well, the Big Red graduate a goodly number of points, particularly including Hagberg and Huber, with no heirs apparent. Princeton graduates several distance stalwarts, but the rest (I believe) of their track-event scorers return. Harvard continues to impress; and with the level of talent H is able to bring in, many observers think the Cantabs will be the first team to break up the Cornell/Princeton hegemony.
On the women's side: Princeton had been coming on like gangbusters in recent weeks, so their challenge to Cornell was not surprising. What's interesting to me is that they had more event wins than Cornell, but did have twice as many non-scoring events (six to three); and Cornell often managed to get two scorers, in events they didn't win outright.
Princeton graduates Moran, who contributed to three event wins, but returns many scorers next year. Meanwhile, Brown had another solid meet and managed to outscore the stars of the lopsided Dartmouth squad. Columbia dropped off significantly from their inspiring indoor win: they still performed okay in the field, but took a lot of ofers on the track. Neer's absence obviously hurt.