NEW YORK, N.Y. -- In a competitive event throughout, the Cornell women's track and field team finished third at the 2011 Indoor Heptagonal Championships, held Saturday and Sunday at the Armory in New York City.
Melissa Hewitt was the lone event winner on the day for the Big Red, which finished the meet with 87.66 points.
Hewitt won the women's 60m dash with a time of 7.52, then added a second-place finish in the long jump with a best effort of 19' 6 1/4". Other runners-up in the meet were Kim Standridge in the 800m and the 4x400m relay team of
Ebolutalese Airewele,
Kelsey Reimnitz,
Molly Glantz and Standridge.
Full results from the meet can be found
here.
The Cornell women's track team placed third at the Indoor Heps this weekend at the Armory in New York City, scoring in every event to tally 87 2/3 points. For the second straight year the top three schools finished in the same order as Princeton and Columbia placed first and second. The Big Red demonstrated unprecendented breadth and achieved a first at this meet: they scored in all 17 events. The Big Red also produced 35 ECAC qualifying performances, 15 changes to the all-time top-10 lists for Cornell and a new school and a new freshman record. Cornell was led by junior
Melissa Hewitt, who defended her title in the 60 and was second in the long jump while scoring in four individual events overall. Also garnering second-team All-Ivy honors were senior Kim Standridge in the 800 and the 4X400 relay.
Great things happened for Cornell on Sunday but the story of this particular Heps should be told chronologically, given the unbelievable quality of the performances across the League on the first day. The Big Red put up points in every event on Day 1 to tally 16 and qualified a meet-best 12 through to Sunday's finals. Junior
Erin Rossi upset pre-meet form-charts to place sixth in the weight, setting a PR of 53-5 1/2 (#9 all-time) to garner a point; senior Cassie Schweighofer was tenth at 47-7 3/4. In the pole vault, junior Sam Brady continued her February surge with a sixth-place clearance of 12-1 1/2. And junior
Melissa Hewitt competed well in the long jump, grabbing the lead on her fifth jump before placing second by two centimeters, ending up with a leap of 19-6 1/4. Freshman
Anjelique Parnell (7th, 18-4 1/4) and senior co-captain Kim Lienhoop (8th, 18-0 1/4) made the finals but just missed out on scoring. In the pentathlon, junior
Karen Schillinger moved to #4 all-time with a total of 3,382 to place fourth while freshman Becca Parascondola was in the hunt most of the day before finishing ninth at 3,197. And in the lone final of the day on the track, the sophomore duo of
Kelsey Karys and
Katie Kellner bravely set the pace for much of the 5000 and gave terrific efforts. Karys finished fifth in the #5 performance in school history, running a personal best 16:36.31 while Kellner ran the fastest ever non-scoring 5K in League history, crossing the line seventh in 16:48.30, good for #8 all-time at Cornell. Their classmate
Genna Hartung also ran well, setting a seasonal best of 17:11.23 for twelfth.
With 16 points on the board, Cornell was poised to move up the charts on Sunday because of a slew of qualifiers that led to alterations to the all-time top 10 lists in every track event. Hewitt (7.56) and senior co-captain
Mecha Santos (7.70, #6 all-time) made it through in the 60 and then came back to advance in the 200 as Hewitt ran a personal best 24.32 (#2 all-time) and Santos garnered a massive personal best of 24.66 (#4 all-time). Freshman
Ebolutalese Airewele ran 24.98 (#9 all-time) in the first round and also advanced to the finals. In the 400, junior
Kelsey Reimnitz advanced in the 400 in a personal best 56.50 to crack the all-time top 10 list. In the 60 hurdles, senior
Lauren Tanz had a seasonal best of 8.90 and junior
Taylor Baird ran well in 8.97 to advance while freshman
Zaakirah Daniels just missed out on the final, running 9.00 to move to #10 all-time at Cornell. The 800 saw several great performances as five ran between 2:07 and 2:12 and three advanced to the finals. Senior co-captain Kim Standridge (2:07.23, #3 all-time), junior
Molly Glantz (2:08.60) and freshman
Lauren Lloyd (2:10.79, breaking her own freshman record) moved on while junior
Bry Bonavita (12th, 2:12.04, a PR) and sophomore
Alyssa O'Connor (15th, 2:12.70) ran very well. And in the mile, junior
Janel Parker had a huge breakthrough, running a seven second personal best of 4:48.30 to move to #4 all-time at Cornell, behind only All-Americans Stephanie Best '91, Jenn Cobb '92 and Loren Mooney '93. Junior
Meghan Brown ran 4:59.24 for 18th in a time that would advance to the finals in most years.
Due to their efforts on Saturday, the Big Red was the only program able to have athletes in every single event contested on Sunday. And, as always, Day Two of the Heps was full of ups and downs, surprises and upsets and was very exciting.
The first event on the track for the women was the mile.
Janel Parker set the tempo from the beginning, holding the lead for the first 1400 meters. Closing her final 800 in 2:19, she placed a competitive fifth in 4:56.25 in her first Heps final and earned her sash. Even as the mile finished up, word came from the shot put that sophomore
Victoria Imbesi had a big breakthrough, and was en route to placing third in 47-0 3/4, which moves her to #2 all-time at Cornell. In the 60 hurdles, the Big Red continued to add points as
Taylor Baird was fifth in 8.88, equalling her PR, which is #9 all-time at Cornell.
Lauren Tanz just missed scoring, crossing the line in 8.94 for seventh.
Kelsey Reimnitz ran a great race in the 400 to win her section of the final and placed third overall, improving a full second from her PR performance the day before, running 55.47 to move to #6 all-time at Cornell in the event. And the Big Red continued to pick up steam in the 60 as
Melissa Hewitt claimed her second straight dash title while taking a break from the triple jump, running 7.52. Santos continued her fine weekend with a fourth place 7.73. Hewitt returned to the triple jump, where she finished third in 40-9, #4 all-time at Cornell. Junior
Kristin Brandt made the finals, placing ninth at 39-0 1/2. Cornell racked up 16 big points in the 800 to move into the thick of the team race as Kim Standridge,
Molly Glantz and
Lauren Lloyd placed second, third and fifth. Standridge ran under 2:08 for the second straight day, this time crossing in 2:07.73 while Glantz set a PR of 2:07.91 (#6 all-time) and Lloyd competed well to run 2:11.10. Next up was the 200 and Hewitt concluded a very successful and busy weekend as she contributed 28 points to the Big Red cause. In the 200, she was fourth in 24.43 while Santos matched her PR from Saturday with a very good run of 24.66 for fifth, finishing a great Heps for her. In the final individual event of the day on the track,
Kelsey Karys picked up where she left off in Saturday's 5K, running a seasonal best 9:42.70 in the 3000 for sixth and add another point to the Big Red ledger in another very good effort. Classmates
Katie Kellner (13th, 9:50.34),
Genna Hartung (14th, 9:52.95) and
Cara Costich (15th, 9:52.96) all set personal bests. The high jump was the final individual event of the day and Kim Lienhoop and sophomore
Ailish Hanly tied for fourth, clearing 5-5 1/4 while freshman
Sarah Udelhofen cleared the same height for eighth.
Although the team trophy was out of the Big Red's grasp by the relays, the Cornell women did not let that deter them and their competitive efforts in the final two events of the meet were outstanding and the results extraordinary. The 4X800 placed fifth in a time that was not only under the old meet record but broke the school record (which dates back to 1991) by four seconds.
Alyssa O'Connor led off in 2:12.6,
Bry Bonavita ran 2:11.5, freshman
Leanne Fernandes split 2:11.4 and Parker anchored in 2:10.9 as the squad ran 8:46.16. And in the 4X400, the quartet of Airewele (57.0), Reimnitz (55.1), Glantz (55.9) and Standridge (57.3) continued the tradition of excellence from Cornell in this event by placing second in 3:45.47.
Complete results can be found here:
http://www.lancertiming.com/results/winter11/hepsw.htm
The Big Red now look forward to the ECAC Championships in Boston on March 5-6 and the NCAAs will conclude the indoor season at Texas A&M on March 11-12.
