Complete Results

ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cornell men's track team had a big weekend at historic Franklin Field at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia on Saturday and Sunday, engaging in another epic battle with Princeton and placing an outstanding second at the Outdoor Heptagonal Championships.

The quality of the Cornell team was remarkable as the Big Red won eight events, had two runner-up showings, had five new additions to the meet all-time top 10 lists, had 26 different men score, produced a meet and school record, had three freshmen records and 41 IC4A qualifying performances while scoring in 17 of 22 events.

The Cornell men, despite falling to rival Princeton by a score of 193-161.75, were well ahead of the rest of the field as the men's Heps continues to be top-heavy with the juggernauts that the Tigers and the Big Red bring to this meet every year. Third-place Harvard scored 92.75 while the Big Red had more than double the point totals of all the other teams. And with the second-place finish, the Cornell men truly were outstanding, with several memorable performances, including school and meet records.

One of the most remarkable efforts on the weekend came from senior Nick Huber, who won the decathlon in a new meet and school record of 7,632 while also placing fourth in the 110 hurdles (14.68) and tying for fifth in the high jump (6' 6 1/4”). In the decathlon, Huber ran 11.03 for the 100, long jumped 22' 7”, heaved the shot 45' 6 1/2”, cleared 6' 4” in the high jump, ran 49.62 for 400, ran 14.77 for the 110 hurdles, threw 136' in the discus and 174' 6” in the javelin before crossing the line first in the 1500 with a time of 4:31.97 to produce the 10th-best score in the NCAA this season. Also scoring in the grueling decathlon was senior Chris Ryan (fifth, 6,523) and freshman Nick Athanasopolous (sixth, 6,468, No. 10 all-time and a freshman record).

The Big Red had seven other Heps champions. One of the most inspirational came in the pole vault on Saturday as sophomore Peter Roach set two personal bests to improve his personal record by 7 inches, ultimately clearing 16' 9 1/2”. That mark was seventh-best in meet history and No. 2 all-time at Cornell. Also on Saturday, senior Chase Aaronson claimed his first individual Heps title in the long jump, reaching 24' 2 1/2”. Sophomores Steven Bell (thord, 23' 4 1/2”) and Hercules Stancil (sixth, 22' 8 1/2”) also scored.

Cornell picked up six more event champions on Sunday. Freshman Stephen Mozia was again terrific, winning his first career Heps title by taking the shot put at 61' 8 1/2”, tying the school freshman record and moving to No. 2 all-time at Cornell, with a mark that was also third-best in meet history behind Olympian August Woolfe of Princeton.

Mozia set another freshman record by placing second in the discus with a heave of 174' 6” (No. 3 all-time at Cornell) and earlier had a huge breakthrough to unexpectedly place fourth in the hammer at 177' 5”.

The Big Red claimed both hurdle events. Senior co-captain Dan Hagberg added another Heps title to his resume in cruising to a convincing 14.41 victory. In addition to Huber's aforementioned scoring effort,  Athanasopolous also scored, placing sixth in 15.05.

In the 400 hurdles, senior Ken McClain had a terrific weekend, crossing the line first in his final two career Heps events. He won the 400 hurdles in 51.94 (No. 8 all-time at Cornell) to lead junior Andre Anderson (third, 52.76, a big personal record) and senior Brian Freitas (sixth, 53.48 despite a tough stumble on the eighth hurdle) to important points. He then came back to anchor a terrific 4x400, anchoring in 46.5 as the quartet of senior Dan Thomas (48.8), freshman Cisco Olloqui (48.1), Freitas (47.2) won in 3:10.77, seventh best all-time at Cornell and in meet history.

Earlier in the day, Cornell picked up a convincing win in the 4x100 despite a new line-up that included sophomore Justin McCollin, junior Jedidiah Adarquah-Yiadom, Aaronson and sophomore Kinsley Ojukwu. The group ran 40.77, tied for seventh all-time at Cornell and good for ninth best in meet history.

The Big Red also had an outstanding 4x800 as sophomore Will Weinlandt (1:52.3), sophomore Eric Bice (1:49.4), junior Nick Wade (1:50.9) and freshman Rutger Admirand (1:50.5) ran 7:23.12 for second, good for the second-best in meet history and third all-time at Cornell.

Another big event for Cornell was the high jump as the Big Red went 2-3-4-5. Sophomore Montez Blair cleared 7' 1” for second, senior Chris Arlinghaus was third at 6' 9 1/2”, sophomore Tommy Butler was fourth at 6' 8 1/4” and Huber was tied for fifth at 6' 6 1/4”.

he Big Red also multiple scorers in the 100 and 800. Aaronson (fourth, 10.78) and Adarquah-Yiadom (fifth, 10.78) ran well in the 100 and Admirand (third, 1:49.55) and Weinlandt (fifth, 1:50.20) did a very good job in the 800. Also scoring was Adarquah-Yiadom (sixth, 21.83) in the 200, senior Dan Thomas in the 400 (fifth, 48.19) and freshman Han Wei Chew in the triple jump (fourth, 47' 10 1/2”).

These scoring efforts wouldn't have been possible without good efforts on Saturday to advance and the Big Red had 15 qualifiers on Day One: Ojukwu (10.54w), Aaronson (10.65w) and Adarquah-Yiadom (10.70w) in the 100, Ojukwu (21.68) and Adarquah-Yiadom (21.98) in the 200, Thomas (48.43) in the 400, Admirand (1:48.84, No. 2 all-time), Weinlandt (1:49.83) and Wade (1:50.29) in the 800, Hagberg (14.60), Huber (14.71) and Athanasopolous (15.19) in the 110 hurdles, and McClain (52.77), Freitas (52.83) and Anderson (53.14) in the 400 hurdles.

And many others contributed to the Big Red cause on the weekend: Ojukwu (eighth, 11.33) in the 100 and (seventh, 21.97) in the 200, sophomore Justin McCollin (10th, 22.22) in the 200, Olloqui (13th, 49.44) in the 400, Wade (eighth, 1:52.56) in the 800, sophomore Max Groves (11th 14:30.32) and (13th, 31:05.57), junior Brett Kelly (16th, 14:4.42) and (ninth, 30:20.93) and junior Matt McCullough (19th, 14:55.96) and (14th, 31:05.60) in the 5K and 10K, freshman Mike Rabbit (10th, 56.77) in the 400 hurdles, junior Andy Arnold in the steeplechase (eighth, 9:13.93, a personal record), freshman Keith Rayburn (seventh, 15' 3”) in the vault, Blair (seventh, 22' 5”) and Chew (ninth, 22' 1 3/4”) in the long jump, senior co-captain Bob Belden, who competed with a dislocated shoulder yet still managed eighth in the shot put at 53' 11 3/4” and ninth in the discus at 153' 8”, freshman Jesse Braun (10th, 48' 2”) and (11th, 146' 7”) in the shot and discus, sophomore David Kim in the vault and sophomore Dan Scott (seventh, 47' 4 1/2”) in the triple jump.

Cornell now heads to the ECAC/IC4A Championships, to be held again this year at Princeton from Friday through Sunday. After that, Cornell will send those that have qualified to the First Round of the NCAAs in Jacksonville, Fla., from May 24-26 and the NCAA Final Round will be in Des Moines, Iowa, from June 6-9.