HEPS Track and Field 2013-14

Okay...and on the women's side?

It'd be great to see my beloved Big Red take home more Heps wins, but they've certainly got their work cut out for them. They graduated a lot of points from last year's outdoor-championship team and--as Ivyguy mentioned re the Cornell men--are thin in some areas. They have just a few throwers on a roster of 100+, for instance, and don't seem to have anyone who can make up for the graduated Imbesi.

[Separate note: that roster seems to include some women who are no longer in the program, and maybe not in the university. I suspect that many/most teams will not have accurate rosters until they actually start their competitive seasons, or at least finish cross country.]

Last year, seven of the eight Ivy women's teams made solid showing at one or both Heps meets. (Yale was the only exception.) Princeton recruited brilliantly, and frosh often contribute on the women's side; Penn had similar success and could be a genuine contender as early as this year.

Of course "recruiting success" pretty much makes one think of Harvard. Based on the very little I can glean from current (unreliable) t&f rosters, I'd have to make the Cantabs--defending indoor champs--the slimmest of early favorites to defend.

But I really think the women's meets will be great tussles again. Based on their Heps xc performance, look for Dartmouth to be true contenders!

Cornell men can definitely win, but they need Columbia's help. If the Lions are hot indoors and outdoors look for Cornell to win both!

i'll be posting my usual rankings via PBs over the past couple years. Also, excited to see how the freshmen classes effect the teams

fun. wrote:

i'll be posting my usual rankings via PBs over the past couple years.

Great! You and shazz add so much to these threads.

Also, this from T&FN (via the Cornell website):

Rudy Winkler lit up the hammer scene in 2013...the 18-year-old New Yorker set national records with both the high school (260-5) and Junior (249-0) implements, securing ’13 AOY honors.

...

While admitting he felt “obviously happy” to set a pair of HSRs in one day, Winkler['s] reactions also mirrored his general approach to throwing.

“I know I can do better,” says the Cornell’s prize new frosh. “I trained in general and threw in training by myself. So I was my only competitor; I had to meet my own standards. Sometimes that was hard as I would see my coach in high school [’00 Irish Olympian Paddy McGrath] maybe only once a week.”

Winkler trained in ’13 to “fix the little things technically. That made the year a lot harder because instead of fixing big things, I worked on little things. So I didn’t see big results.”

Says Cornell throws coach Megan Johnson, “Rudy will grow physically, technically and strengthwise in college and also learn patience. But he was one of the most mature high school throwers in the competitive setting I have ever seen....”

As a collegian, Winkler says, “I want to learn and adapt to the heavier implement [he threw a 16-pound PR of 213-0 in ’13, good for No. 3 prep all-time]. There are a lot of great throwers now, but I will still be my main competitor.

“I may not throw far in ’14, but I want to learn all I can so that I definitely will throw far in the future.”

Winkler Hammers It

Between 1947 and 1998, only 7 throwers ever got the nod as our HS Boys AOY. In the 15 years since then, no fewer than 8 weightmen have scored, and none more than the hammer, with 4.

The latest is new recordsetter Rudy Winkler, who received 9 of 22 votes for No. 1 in banging out a 21-point margin of victory over hurdler Marlon Humphrey (7 No. 1s). Winkler was the No. 10 vote-getter as a junior.

Full release:

Okay, we finally got through cross season (congrats to Abbey and the other strong Ivy performers, yada) and now we get to focus on the real deal: track and field.

The indoor season actually starts on Friday, December 6th, with Penn and Dartmouth away, and Cornell hosting Day One of its Greg Page Relays. My hometown Columbia Lions aren't scheduled to compete until January, a feature of previous schedules as well. (I admit I don't understand how you keep the non-xc kids motivated through a whole fall of training--with no meet in prospect--but Columbia has garnered a recent Heps track win so evidently they've figured something out.)

Indoor Heps will be at Dartmouth, whose Leverone Field House has been renovated:

http://www.dartmouthsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=48808&SPID=4706&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=209222390&DB_OEM_ID=11600

So: do any teams look ready to make big moves? Per the speculation above, will Dartmouth be going for a team win on the women's side? Is another men's team ready to contend with Princeton and Cornell?

More on Leverone: http://dartmouthsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=11600&ATCLID=590350

Courtesy of the Cornell fellowship office, info about two Big Red t&fers:

"Samantha Olyha, ALS '14, and Emily Shearer, A&S '14, are Cornell's new Marshall Scholars.

"Sam is a biology major with a concentration in neurobiology and behavior. She conducts research in the Lammerding lab and is writing an honors thesis on the effect of stem cell differentiation defects on muscular dystrophy and on dilated cardiomyopathy disease progression.

"She is a pentathlete and heptathlete on the track and field team, editor for the campus neuroscience journal Synapse, a biology student advisor, and a three-year leader for the comparative physiology study group on campus. Sam will undertake a two-year master's degree in oncology at Oxford.

"Emily majors in biology and in government and has a minor in health policy. She conducts research in the Stover lab and is writing an honors thesis on a biochemical mechanism associated with folate metabolism. She is a biology student advisor and study group leader, works for Cornell Emergency Medical Services, and conducts health policy research for Cornell's Roosevelt Institute. She is captain of both the cross-country and the track and field teams and holds various Cornell, Ivy, and NCAA titles. Emily will undertake a one-year master's degree in public policy at Cambridge and a second master's degree in medical anthropology at Oxford.

"In recognition of the unique relationship between Great Britain and the United States, the Marshall Scholarship supports future leaders of society by providing two years of graduate study at nearly any post-secondary institution in Great Britain. From a pool of nearly 1,000 applicants already vetted by their home institutions, the Marshall Commission selects between 30 and 40 scholars.

"The Marshall Commission will post the list of 2014 Scholars at its Web site

http://www.marshallscholarship.org/

the week of December 2."

On this cold and snowy Thanksgiving day

I'm grateful that the first track meet is only eight days away!

I don't see many of the Cornell home meets but will try to catch their season opener (Greg Page Relays meet) where my Ithaca College Bombers are scheduled to compete. Will report on anything interesting.

MAN I am psyched for t&f to start! Should be an especially crazy year in the throws--can't wait!

I did get to both days of the Cornell meet. Pretty typical season opener with both surprisingly good and somewhat disappointing stuff.

The multis started on Friday and Cornell had two guys over 5,000 points in the heptathlon. Mike Rabbitt had a four-PR first day on his way to 5153 points (converted). The freshman Austin Jamerson showed enormous potential and his 5050 included a 7.19 LJ. Four other CU men were over 7m in the meet and Dan Scott went 15m in the triple jump.

Bruno Hortelano-Roig was huge on Saturday. I've seen him run several times and somehow he didn't look quite as "sharp" as last spring but ran fast anyway. He went 6.76 in the 60m heats and broke the Barton Hall record in the 300 with 33.46. Very impressive on that flat track. He also split sub-48 in the 4x400. Three other Cornell guys were sub-7 in the 60.

On the women's side Cornell's Akpaete looked good while running sub-40 in the 300.

Cornell had the usual two guys over 7ft in the high jump and two more at 6-8. Roach went 5m in the vault and a frosh jumped 4.90.

I saw some of the throws. The Cornell guys looked amazing when preparing for the weight throw but succumbed to first-meet-itis. Their star freshman Rudy Winkler did win with a 60ft throw but I had really thought they might get three or four over that. I was maybe most impressed by frosh Martin Murillo whom I'd never heard of. Ended up without a mark but looked fantastic in his warmup. Steven Mozia went around 17m in the weight but was over 19 in the shot.

Complete results at

http://www.directathletics.com/results/track/31212.html

"somewhat disappointing stuff?" It's December!!!

Bruno "not as sharp" as last spring? I would hope not - he raced through the World Championships!

Last year at this meet Bruno ran 6.88 and 33.94. The 33.94 was a school record and Spanish national record at the time.

This year Bruno ran 6.76 (and 6.78) and 33.46...AND 47.9 in the relay.

Rudy was less than a foot off the freshman record, which was set last year by Bryan Rhodes, who threw 57' yesterday and 18" farther than at this meet last year.

You were expecting 3 or 4 Cornell guys over 60' in the weight at the first meet? There were only 3 guys in the whole league who did that last year, and none of them did that in December.

In an earlier post you said you would be at the meet to cheer on "your" Ithaca College Bombers. So why do you only write about Cornell stuff?

I may be a skinny distance runner, but I will jump to the front of the fray to defend the Big Red.

Yes, Bruno is off to a better start this year than last year, as "call a spade a spade" noted.

There is not an official Ivy record for the 300m as the schools do not really keep track of that event's times, so it could be a conference record. It's sad how TFRRS nor DirectAthletics keep track of the 300m or 600m (yet they are keeping track of the 500m still [and DirectAthletics used to keep track of any event contested by an Ivy Leaguer in a season]) so it is still hard to find records of them. By my research, the next closest 300m time done by an Ivy Leaguer was Austin Hollimon in 2011 (33.53) (feel free to correct me if someone can find something faster).

Bruno's 60m time is also the 3rd fastest in conference history (behind 6.73 and a few 6.75s).

Other notables (IMHO),

- Harvard's Danielle Barbian ran a 7.58, tied for 10th in conference history.

- Princeton's Cecelia Barowski ran a 1:30.06 in the 600m, which is 3 seconds faster than anyone else in the League this past weekend.

- Princeton's Tom Hopkins got a huge indoor PR with a 24-11.75 in the LJ, which is 7th best in conference history.

- Cornell's Stephen Mozia (SP - 62-6) and Montez Blair (HJ - 7-2.5) are off to strong event starts in this season.

- Cornell's Rudy Winkler had a good debut in the collegiate weight throw, winning at Cornell in 64-0.5

- Princeton's Julia Ratcliffe is off to a similiar start as last year, winning the weight throw at Princeton's meet in 64-0.5 (threw 64-3 last year).

- Harvard women, barring no injuries or false starts, are going to dominate the hurdles at Heps. They had a 8.60, 8.65, and two 8.80s on Saturday.

Geez. Calm down. No offense intended. I just said I'd report about anything I found interesting.

It was just the first meet so *I* wasn't disappointed by anything. But some athletes who had trained for the last X months had very high expectations for the meet and were disappointed not to achieve them.

The whole point about Bruno is that he ran incredibly fast even though he didn't look *quite* as good as when I saw him last spring. That indicates the possibility for even more amazing times when he *does* sharpen up.

I saw two (at least) of the Cornell weight throwers throw at/over the 18m line in their warmup with the other(s) close. By their actions it was obvious that all four hoped for "big" throws in the actual competition and they probably tried too hard as a result.

And the event should be amazing this year. Only two of last year's top ten at Heps (5th and 8th places) were seniors. Add in the great Ivy League newcomers and it's very possible a 60ft throw won't score.

I'll write about IC and other DIII teams in the appropriate threads. In this thread I stick to Ivy performances.

Cornell doesn't need "defense" from me! I know some of their athletes and coaches and am always happy for their success, which I think they'll have more of this year. Their women's team is very competitive and their men are loaded.

C/M Runner wrote:

- Cornell's Rudy Winkler had a good debut in the collegiate weight throw, winning at Cornell in 64-0.5

- Harvard women, barring no injuries or false starts, are going to dominate the hurdles at Heps. They had a 8.60, 8.65, and two 8.80s on Saturday.

Nah, Winkler threw 60-6 or so. I think you gave him Ratcliffe's distance--just a typo.

Even though it's just early days, not everyone competed this weekend, and not every "standard" event was contested in every meet, I still think we got a sense of how tough the women's Heps could be this year. I find myself increasingly intrigued by the possibility of the Big Green going for a team title at home. They have some real "big meet" points on that team...

By the way, here's the link to the Ivy performance list:

kibitzer wrote:

Nah, Winkler threw 60-6 or so. I think you gave him Ratcliffe's distance--just a typo.

(looks at notes)

Oops. I read the wrong line - thanks.

Brown's Ned Willig not on roster any word on his whereabouts??

Speaking of rosters, the Cornell rosters (more so on the women's side?) need serious updating. They've got people on there who've graduated, left the team, left the university, left the country(!), etc.

The Cornell men's roster is up to date

BRF wrote:

Speaking of rosters, the Cornell rosters (more so on the women's side?) need serious updating. They've got people on there who've graduated, left the team, left the university, left the country(!), etc.

Who's left the university/country?

The only thing I've heard about Ned Willig is that he ran in one XC race this past fall (the Rothenberg XC race in mid-October) but I don't recall if he had run any other races (including Heps XC). But at the same time, there was not much distance action last weekend anyways and there will likely not be a lot of distance action until mid-January. Right now, it's usually the sprinters/jumpers/throwers time to shine.