Complete Results

ITHACA, N.Y. – Cheered on by an enthusiastic crowd of Cornell track alumni, friends and family, the Big Red men placed second to defending champion Princeton in a hard-fought Indoor Heps at Barton Hall over the weekend. For the third straight year indoors, the Cornell men waged a terrific battle with the Tigers and this time came up just eight points short of the team title, scoring 176 overall and over 100 better than third-place Columbia.

The quality of the Cornell performances were remarkable over the two days. The Big Red won three events (heptathlon, long jump and 60 hurdles), had nine runner-up showings and 32 different scoring efforts in 17 of the 19 events. The Cornell men had six alterations to the all-time top 10 lists and an amazing 45 IC4A-qualifying performances on the weekend.

The Cornell men got off to a very strong start on Saturday, qualifying a meet-best 15 times to Sunday's finals as well as scoring in each first-day final. Sophomore Steven Bell won the long jump in 24' 4 1/4” on his sixth and final jump and led the Big Red to a great 1-2-4-6 showing as senior Chase Aaronson (23' 11 3/4”), sophomore Montez Blair (23' 6 3/4”) and senior Vince Formica (23' 3 1/4”) also scored.

In the weight throw, senior co-captain Bob Belden came through with a clutch sixth-round throw to move up to second in 59' 2 1/4” while junior Bob Fiedler was fifth at 58' 1” and freshman Stephen Mozia set a personal record to get seventh in 55' 10 1/2”. In the vault, sophomore Peter Roach was fourth at 15' 9” while freshman Keith Rayburn cleared the same height to get sixth.

Although the Big Red trailed Princeton by 12 after Saturday, the Big Red had a remarkable 15 through to Sunday's finals. Four made it through in the 60 (Aaronson, 6.79 – No. 3 all-time, sophomore Chris Bain, 6.87, sophomore Kinsley Ojukwu, 6.90, junior Jedidiah Adarquah-Yiadom, 6.93). Another four made it throughin the 60 hurdles (senior Dan Hagberg, 8.05, senior Nick Huber, 8.21, junior Zach Zeller, 8.30 and freshman Jon Hanninen (8.36), two advanced in the 500 (seniors Dan Thomas, 64.41 and Brian Freitas, 64.85), another two in the 800 (freshman Rutger Admirand, 1:52.08 and junior Nick Wade, 1:54.02), one in the mile (sophomore John Schilkowski, 4:17.23) and one in the 400 (sophomore Mike Rabbitt, 49.37).

Locked in a fierce dual with Princeton throughout Sunday in nearly every event, the Cornell men could not quite make a dent in the lead despite some terrific efforts. A big highlight came early on in the 60 hurdles as the senior duo of Hagberg and Huber went 1-2, with Hagberg running 7.98 (No. 2 all-time in school history) and Huber crossing the line in 8.13 (No.4 all-time).

Also adding to the 21 team points in the event were Zeller (fifth, 8.28) and Hanninen (sixth, 8.29, No. 9 all-time). Cornell also had multiple scorers in the 60 (Bain third, 6.83; Adarquah-Yiadom, fifth, 6.86 and Aaronson, sixth, 6.87) and in the 500 (Thomas, second, 63.39 and Freitas, third, 63.92).

In the 800, Admirand continued to impress with an outstanding second-place run that was under the old Barton Hall record. He crossed the line in 1:50.24, No. 2 all-time at Cornell. Also scoring on the track was Rabbitt in the 400 (fourth, 49.87) and Schilkowski in the mile (fifth, 4:23.90 in which he ran 1:57 for the last 800 after a tactical start).

The Cornell men took a huge chunk out of Princeton's growing lead with several outstanding efforts in the field. Mozia (second, 58' 4 1/2”) and Belden (third, 57' 3/4”) picked up 14 valuable points in the shot put and the high jump trio of Blair (second, 7' 1 1/2”), senior Chris Arlinghaus (third, 6' 11”) and sophomore Tommy Butler (fourth, 6' 9 3/4”) had 18 points in a very compelling competition.

In the triple jump, sophomore Dan Scott added to the Cornell ledger with a second-place showing of 48' 6”. But it was in the heptathlon that Cornell cut deeply into the Princeton lead heading into the relays, as the Big Red went an amazing 1-2-3. Nick Huber had an outstanding weekend. in addition to his runner-up showing in the 60 hurdles, he won the heptathlon (7.16 in the 60, 21' 10 3/4” in the long jump, 42' 4 3/4” in the shot put, 6' 4” in the high jump, 8.54 in the hurdles, 15' 9” in the pole vault and 2:48.48 in the 1000) by scoring 5,446 points. Senior Vince Formica added to his sixth-place long jump with a runner-up showing of 5,167 (No. 3 all-time) and senior Josh Cusick was third with 5,011. Senior Chris Ryan just missed scoring with a seventh-place total of 4,832 points.

This set the table for an exciting conclusion to the men's meet, as Cornell had Princeton it its sights, trailing only by three points. The distance medley relay squad of Schilkowski (3:01.3 for 1200), Rabbitt (50.4 for 400), Wade (1:56.7 for 800), and junior Andy Arnold (4:09.2 for 1600) ran a gutsy race to sixth in a seasonal-best 9:57.50.

The 4x800 made a great effort for the event win, and ended up second in 7:35.21 behind legs from senior Chris Jakobsen (1:56.6), junior David McCuiston (1:56.3), sophomore Will Weinlandt (1:51.2) and Admirand (1:50.9 in his third 800 of the weekend).

With only the 4x400 remaining, the Princeton lead was now ten. The Big Red did everything it could, winning its heat and placing second overall as Ojukwu (49.9), Hanninen (50.3), Freitas (48.9) and Thomas (49.0) ran 3:18.37 to close out the meet.

Other Cornellians to compete included senior Ken McClain in the 400 (ninth, 50.88), Hanninen in the 500 (12th, 66.17), McCuiston in the 1000 (12th, 2:31.92), sophomore David Kim in the vault (7th, 15' 3”), Ojukwu in the 60 final (seventh, 6.89) and triple jump (ninth, 45' 3 3/4”) and Bell in the triple jump (seventh, 46' 10 3/4”).

Next up for Cornell is the ECAC/IC4A Championships which will be held in Boston on March 3-4.