ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's track team was terrific at their first home meet of the 2011 outdoor season on Saturday. Playing host to several other upstate New York schools and track clubs at the Spring Invitational, the Big Red won 15 events with an outdoor season-high 21 IC4A qualifiers for a single meet. In addition, the Big Red set track records in the 4X100, 1500, 800 and 400 hurdles and there were four alterations to the school all-time top 10 lists.
The 4X100 of freshman
Chris Bain, sophomore
Jedidiah Adarquah-Yiadom, junior
Chase Aaronson and sophomore
Bruno Hortelano-Roig moved to #4 in the Cornell history books and broke the Kane complex record with a an outstanding time of 40.70. In a great display of depth in the sprints, the squad of senior co-captain
Chris Tait, senior Andy Ahart, senior
Brian Tan and freshman
Justin McCollin ran 41.63 to get second and also better the IC4A standard. A pair of freshmen dipped under the track record of Aldo Gonzalez '04 in the 800 as
Will Weinlandt ran 1:51.09 and John Schilkowski was 1:51.19 for second as the Big Red swept the top seven spots in the race. Also placing in the top three was sophomore
David McCuiston, who crossed the line in 1:52.84. In the 1500, sophomore
Nick Wade cruised to victory and eclipsed the track record of Geoff Van Fleet '02, as he ran 3:49.50, an IC4A qualifier. Junior
Brian Freitas set the Big Red's other track record on the day as he placed first in the 400 hurdles with an IC4A-qualifier of 53.00; classmate Steve Wexler was third in 56.98. Dipping under the old track record in the 200 (but a 2.8 m/s wind prevents it from counting in the record books) was Hortelano-Roig, who ran a seasonal best 21.30; also bettering the IC4A standard was McCollin (2nd, 21.53) and freshman
Kinsley Ojukwu (3rd, 21.65). The Big Red also had an event win from Ahart in the 100 and a win and IC4A qualifier and seasonal best from the 4X400 of junior Dan Thomas (49.5), Hortelano-Roig (48.3), Freitas (48.1) and Boyd (48.0) as the quartet ran 3:14.06.
There were several very good performances in the field. Junior
Chris Arlinghaus moved to #8 all-time in the high jump with a clearance of 6-10 1/4 to place first and freshman
Jon Gancas was also an event winner with a throw of 185-9 in the javelin, good enough for #10 all-time. Junior
Bob Belden was a double winner as he took the shot put at 53-8 1/2 and the discus in 163-8, both easily past the IC4A qualifying standard. And in the hammer, sophomore Bob Feidler placed first with a throw of 171-2. Cornell was especially impressive in the long and triple jumps, with seven IC4A qualifying efforts: freshman
Steven Bell (1st, 24-7), freshman
Hercules Stancil (1st, 24-0 1/4), Aaronson (3rd, 23-7 1/2), senior
Enbani Moore (4th, 23-6) in the long jump and freshman
Dan Scott (1st, 49-5w), Bell (2nd, 47-10) and senior
Julian Remouns (3rd, 49-9 1/4) in the triple jump. The Big Red also claimed first in the pole vault, as sophomore
Peter Roach cleared 14-3 1/4. Several Cornellians competed in the first day of the decathlon and junior
Nick Huber was off to a particularly impressive start, with a first day total of 3,981 points. The decathlon will conclude on Sunday.
Complete results can be found here:
After the multi-events conclude on Sunday, the Big Red will next compete at the Bucknell Invitational on Friday-Saturday, April 15-16 in Lewisburg, PA. After hosting the Outdoor Upstate Challenge on Saturday, April 23, Cornell will then head to the Penn Relays on April 28-30, will host the Big Red Invitational on Sunday, May 1 and then will compete at the outdoor Heps at Yale on May 7-8.
