Heptagonals Track & Field

Brown — The Bears posted fast-improving marks across the board at Yale’s Giegengack Invitational this weekend, highlighted by several league-leading performances … The women captured wins in seven events, beginning on the track with senior Ariel Wright and freshman Bree Shugarts … The pair claimed first and second in the mile in league-leading times (and personal bests) of 4:53.10 and 4:56.15, Wright with a commanding lead from the start and Shugarts with a furious closing kick … Wright’s effort eighth fastest in Brown history … Sophomore Rosie Fleming executed a tactically sound 1k for the win … Freshman Olivia Thomas won the 500m in 1:16.55, Brown’s seventh-fastest all-time run … Sophomore Susan Scavone was victorious in the 60m hurdles (9.01) and senior Jasmine Chukwueke was runner-up in the 400m in a solid 56.80 … The women continued their display of strength in the field events as well, where junior Gabriela Baiter won the triple with a league-best leap of 39-4 … Junior Brynn Smith and senior Dani Grunloh trumped the field in the shot, both heaving a league-dominating 49-6 1/2 to take first and second … Freshman Hannah Wallace tied for first in the pole vault, and senior Anja Hergreuter was runner-up in the high jump … On the men’s side, sophomore Matt Duffy lit up the track in the mile to PR and post a league-leading 4:08.66 … Sophomore Anthony Schurz competed well in the 800m, finishing in a personal-best 1:53.78, and junior Brian Schilder finished high in his first attempt at the 1k (2:28.56) … In field events, senior Andrew Chapin finished first of collegiates in the triple with a jump of 47-8 (2nd overall) … Senior Bryan Powlen continued to show his strength in the shot with another high finish in the shot with a throw of 53-3 3/4, which was first among collegians, third overall. (Report filed by Rachel Baker)

Columbia — The Lions — both men and women — competed at the New Balance Armory Invitational this past weekend and continued a streak of strong performances … The women showed their prowess in the field events once again, led by a stellar performance from freshman standout Dora Vegvari, who catapulted herself into the school record books with a 19-6 1/4 long jump … That was good enough for third place in the event and currently places her second overall in the Ivy League (just about an inch from the top spot) … Finishing not too far behind was classmate Uju Ofoche, who jumped 19-2 … Also making some noise in the triple jump event was school record holder sophomore Uzunma Udeh, who placed 3rd with a leap of 39-1 … On the track, notable highlights on the women’s side included a solid sixth-place showing (9:40.81) for Jackie Drouin in the 3,000m championship race and a seventh place (2:11.88) for Serita Lachesis in the 800m race … The women’s 4×400m team also knocked another second off of their school record set last weekend, running 3:41.19  … On the men’s side, Kyle Merber stole the show in the 3,000m with a fifth-place finish and a new PR to boot (a League-best 8:09.01) … That time ranks Merber second in Columbia history, just seconds behind the legendary Steve Sundell. (Report filed by Gerry Groothuis)

Cornell — The Big Red ventured to Penn State University this weekend for the Sykes-Sabock Challenge Cup and both squads took third overall in strong fields … The women, which finished behind both Penn State and Auburn, boasted a number of great performances … The two event wins came from sophmore Melissa Hewitt, who clocked 7.50 in the 60 dash, and senior captain Stephanie Pancoast, who won the 5000m in 16:58.49) … Those two as well as junior Kim Standridge (second in the 800m, 2:09.82), freshman Kelsey Karys (second in the 3000m, 9:41.78) and junior Mecha Santos (13th in the 60m, 7.76) all made new entry into Cornell’s top 10 all-time list  … Karys’ time was good enough for the 26 year-old freshman 3000 meter record … Coach Nathan Taylor’s men finished behind Princeton and Penn State … A big story to come out of the meet was told in the triple jump pit from a battle between teammates … The result was a 1-2 finish between Gary Jones (49-9) and senior captain Duane Teixeira’s (49-5 1/4) … However, the rest of the team was not to be overshadowed … Like the women, there were a number of top 10 all-time performances, including sophomore Danny Hagberg (second in the 60m hurdles, 8.15), sophomore Kenny McClain (second in the 400m, 48.06), senior Owen Kimple (second in the 3000, 8:27.61 8:12.06), freshman Bruno Hortelano-Roig (ninth in the 60m, 6.94) and sophomore Chase Aaronson (11th in the 60m, 7.0). (Report filed by Kate Murdoch)

Dartmouth — How does double winner at the Dartmouth Indoor Classic, Natalie Stoll, celebrate her sweep of the 200m (26.10) and 400m dashes (57.60)? … She leads the 4×400m relay to victory in 3:55.99 … Teammate Malina Simmers had a spectacular day in the triple jump, bounding out to 38-6 to win the event and move up to No. 4 on Dartmouth’s all time list … The Green enjoyed a 1-2-3 sweep in the pole vault with first-place honors going to frosh Karla Verkow at 10-11 3/4 … She was followed by senior Hannah Raila and Lauren LaDolcetta … Rookie Emmaline Berg continued her hot throwing in the shot as her winning effort of 45-6 1/4 was five feet better than all others … Senior captain Ted Lesher didn’t just win two individual events at the Dartmouth Indoor Classic, he won both in season best performances — 8.39 in the hurdles and 48-1 3/4 in the triple jump … Meanwhile Dave Irving provided some early meet excitement for the home team by throwing the weight 61-7, which is the top mark in the League this winter … As is becoming commonplace, the Green dominated the sprints taking both the 60m and 200m dashes … Connor Reilly took the straightaway in 6.93, a fast time that also has shown his amazing consistency … Teammate Muhammed Abdul-Shakoor was a very close runner-up in the dash (6.94) and an easy winner in the 200 (22.54) … Tyler Ford, bouncing back from injury, won the 500m in 1:06.34 in his first race in about a month … In alumni news, the latest issue of Track & Field News named Adam Nelson as “Shot putter of the Decade.” (Report filed by Barry Harwick)

Harvard — The Crimson has a very successful weekend at their home track, where both squads won the annual Battle of Beantown trophies … The men successfully defended their title by defeating strong Boston College, Northeastern and Boston University squads … Led by the field squad, Jack Brady, Ablorde Ashigbi, and Eric Clayman placed 1-3-4 in the weight throw while Kenneth Wang Kan won both the long and triple jumps … Brady (58-8 /4) and Ashigbi (56-4 1/2) threw far enough to qualify for IC4As while Wang Kan’s best leap in the triple jump (47-1 3/4) will also extend his season … Brian Hill (1:03.97) and Justin Grinstead (1:04.94)  came 1-2 in the 500m, both IC4A qualifiers … Jeremy Gilmour (3000m) and the IC4A-qualifying mile relay (Robbie Paris, Grinstead, Jeff Homer and Hill) were the other Crimson champions for the day … For the Crimson women, the trophy title came down to the mile relay, where anchor Carlyle Davis edged out Boston College for the relay win in ECAC qualifying time … The other relay members were Magda Robak, Jasmine Cho and Shannon Conway … But the individual star of the afternoon was freshman Ashtynn Baltimore, who rewrote the record books in both the 60m hurdles (8.43) and the long jump (19-7 1/2) by establishing the second fastest and furthest marks in school history … Baltimore’s hurdle time also provisionally qualifed her for NCAAs, becoming the first Crimson to qualify in the hurdles in Brenda Taylor in 2000 … In fact, only Taylor, later an Olympics finalist, has run faster in 60m hurdlers as an Ivy Leaguer … Meanwhile, Davis set a school record in the 500m dash, by winning the event in 1:13.60 … Melissa Bellin ran the fourth-fastest 500m dash time in school history (1:15.45) to take third … The other Crimson win came in the triple jump, where Olivia Weeks qualified for ECACs with her leap of 39-3. (Report filed by Mary Boggs, who also covered the Boston Indoor Games)

Penn — The Quakers have a new star in freshman Tim Carey, who posted victory in the 400-meter dash at the 15-team Giegengack Invitational at Yale University last weekend … Carey’s time of 49.01 was not just an IC4A qualifier, it is one of the 10 fastest indoor times in school annals … Coach Charlie Powell’s distance medley relay of James Finucane, Taylor Neason, Brian Fulton and Luke Grau had the best time of the year (10:03.88) in taking third … It was an IC4A qualifier as well … The women traveled to the New Balance Collegiate Invitational at the New York City Armory and the best performance was the 4×200-meter relay — consisting of senior Halloran Cope, soph Kesi Irvin, junior Kali Strother and rook Nony Onyeador … That foursome hit the line in 1:44.29, less than a quarter-second slower than the school record … Freshman Charlotte Pope had her best weight throw as a Quaker, pushing it to 51-3 … That mark is now seventh on Penn’s all-time list … Sophomore Paige Madison turned in a 56.81 winning effort in her heat of the 400-meter dash.

Princeton — The men won the Sykes-Sabock Challenge at Penn State over the weekend with 111 points to second-place Penn State’s 83, becoming the first school from a non-BCS conference to win the meet … Sophomore Austin Hollimon came through in a big way with an NCAA provisional mark of 47.03, winning the 400m by over a full second … That makes him the fourth-fastest performer in Heps indoor history … Tiger freshman went 1-2-5 in the 800m — Peter Callahan (1:51.46), Russell Dinkins (1:51.55) and Michael Palmisano (1:53.16) … In the closest race of the weekend, junior Kyle Soloff edged sophomore Donn Cabral by less than half of one one-hundredth for the win in the mile, 4:08.283 to 4:08.287 … In the 3000m run, sophomore Brian Leung made his season debut finishing third in 8:14 with sophomore Trevor VanAckaren in fifth at 8:17 … Sophomore Max Kaulbach won the 5k in 14:34, with freshman Mike Franklin and senior Ted Price following in 3-4 with 14:44 and 14:46 … Senior Justin Frick cleared the NCAA provisional mark yet again with a high jump of 7-0 1/4 … The women’s team left most distance runners at home and sent a few to New Balance over the weekend, but the team at Penn State was picked up by strong performances in the field … Junior Thanithia Billings set a school record in the weight throw, finishing third in 57-1 … She also placed second in the shot put with a toss of 46-7 1/2 … Freshman Tory Worthen won the pole vault in 13-0 while junior K.C. Wade cleared 5-5 in the high jump … Sophomore Eileen Moran clocked 7.72 in the 60m and later led the 4×400 to a 3:48 showing with her mid-55 leg … At the Armory, senior Alexa Glencer was second in the 3k in 9:48. (Report filed by Tyler King)

Yale — The Bulldogs played host to the Geigengack Invitational over the weekend, an event named in honor of USA Track & Field Hall of Fame inductee Bob Geigengack, who coached Yale for 29 years … He was an Olympic coach in both Melbourne (1956) and Tokyo (1964) … At the Invitational, two Eli men bettered the IC4A standard — junior Jeff Perrella in the 3k (8:18.69) and sophomore Conor Dooney in the mile (4:12.36) … The distance medley relay also had a qualifier in 10:02.24, good for second … That foursome was senior dominated by Chris Labosky, David Soiles and Kevin Brown while freshman Chris Ramsey ran the third leg … The women’s DMR also had a strong qualifier as junior Kate Grace, senior Claudia Duncan, freshman Annalies Gamble and senior Liya Assefa finished in 11:47.22 … “It was a good race,” said Coach Mark Young. “Grace ran well even though she was by herself up front. They all did a good job, but Liya Assefa probably showed the most improvement to get to what she did today.” … Next Saturday is the annual HYP meet, this time at Princeton’s Jadwin Gym.

Mary Boggs, a Heps champion in her days at Harvard, provided coverage of the Boston Indoor Games for Heps Track this weekend. Here is her report:

Even though the majority of the New England was under bitter cold conditions, the Reggie Lewis Track and Field Center was quite warm due to the amazing performances occurring at the Boston Indoor Games. While the men 5K was the top billed event and talk of the meet, the women’s 1000m race one of the closest races of the night.

Ivy League alumni, training partners, and good friends Anna Pierce and Morgan Uceny ran their first indoor meets of the young season against some very talented middle distance competition. With 250m to go, Pierce, Uceny, Erin Donahue, and Kenia Sinclair (JAM) were in a tight group, making it possible for anyone to emerge as the victor. But it was Pierce who took the lead with 200m to go, and while she fought off Uceny and Donahue, she could not out-kick Sinclair, as Sinclair edged Pierce at the finish line to win in 2:38.62. Pierce came second with 2:38.76, while Uceny came fourth with 2:40.07.

Uceny was quite happy with her race and hopes to improve upon it as the indoor season continues. ”I didn’t feel too tired at the end… I just joined a new training group and right now, we are trying to figure out my strengths and weaknesses,” she said afterward.  It is likely that both of their times will improve as the season progresses, if what goes on in practice is any indication of what is yet to come.

Pierce explained in an interview with NBC Sports earlier this week as how hard Uceny pushes her in practice.  Uceny told HepsTrack of how Pierce pushes her, and how it is great “to be pushed by someone of that caliber.”  Good luck to the both of them as the indoor season continues.

Well, I have been in Indy, digging out from about a foot of snow. So I don’t really know how much of the stuff folks in the Northeast are dealing with. On top of that, the local news is refusing to report on anything that doesn’t relate to the Super Bowl or Peyton Manning.

Anyway, here is the Heps Track schedule for today:

Brown, Penn & Yale at the Giegengack Invitational (New Haven, Conn.)
Columbia & Princeton* at New Balance Collegiate Invitational (NYC Armory)
Cornell & Princeton at Sykes-Sabock Challenge (State College, Pa.)
Dartmouth at Dartmouth Indoor Classic (Hanover, N.H.)
Harvard at Battle of Beantown (Cambridge, Mass.)
* The Tiger women will have a split squad this weekend.

Also, we have gotten a finalized version of the Saturday Indoor Heps schedule, which is posted here. Saturday’s slate has changed quite a bit, but Sunday’s stays the same.

Best wishes to everyone in safe snow removal. Don’t rely just on your back!

Heps Track turns one today. It is not accepting gifts, but it would encourage you to tell your friends about it. In year one we posted 346 stories and had a quarter-million unique visits. Post your birthday wishes in comments below!

We want our Year 2 to garner much more attention, so you are encouraged to get involved and help us out. Sign up to join our Facebook Friends’ Group by clicking here.

One of the former star sprinters at Dartmouth, Jimmie Lee Solomon, was ranked as one of the Sports Illustrated’s top 10 most influential minorities in sports a few years ago. And his work since has been paying off for Major League Baseball as the percentage of black players are increasing after a long, steady decline.

Solomon recently returned to his Texas high school for the first time in more than three decades to talk to students about being prepared for the future and following their passions. That event was covered by Gene Duffey on MLB.com.

Here is a sample:

After moving into his current role as executive vice president of baseball operations in 2005, he created, in 2007, the annual Civil Rights Game, which will be played May 15 this year in Cincinnati. He is extremely proud of the role baseball played in integration, beginning with Jackie Robinson in 1947.

“Baseball [integrated] before the armed forces did, before Brown vs. Board of Education,” he said. “The grand experiment was baseball. We needed to take credit where we were in the whole forefront of the civil rights movement.

“The Commissioner has created diversity, on the field and in the board room. We have vice presidents who are Latino and female. We had an uptick last year [in the number of black players in the Majors]. We went from 8.5 percent to 10.2 percent.”

Major League Baseball became concerned in recent years about the shrinking number of African-Americans in the Majors. Solomon spearheaded a change.

NBC Sports recently interviewed Anna Pierce, who is remembered around these parts as Brown University’s Anna Willard. She is preparing for the Boston Indoor Games and has set forth some lofty ambitions for 2010.

Our favorite question of the bunch: What does it mean for your training to now have a healthy Morgan Uceny [ed. note: who ran at Cornell] in the group day in and day out?

Pierce’s answer:

It’s awesome. Having her on has been such a breath of fresh air. Last year, I had to do most of the stuff by myself. Jenn (Rhines) was joking with me the other day about how I had to always invent ways to work my workout into somebody else’s workout. It was like, ‘Jenn, what are you running? A 1200? Ok, I’m running a 400m so I’ll start 10 seconds behind you and I’ll catch you.’ I really thrive in a group setting so I enjoy being around other people. Having Morgan has been fantastic. She’s really good at altitude and surprisingly really good at the longer stuff. I was surprised because she hasn’t done that many tempos or longer intervals, but she’s been really good at that stuff. I can see her growing into a pretty amazing 1500-meter runner, maybe even the 3K even though she’s not really interested in it right now. We complement each other in training really well.

Both she and Uceny are scheduled to run in the 1,000m at the Boston Indoor Games and we will be on the scene. For the full NBC interview, please click here.

In honor of Black History Month, I wanted to share a story about an Ivy League athlete who predated Heps — Harvard University’s Ted Cable. For an image of Cable, please click here.

When Ted Cable first arrived at Harvard University, he had no plan to participate in athletics. By the time he graduated in 1913, the Indianapolis native had become, as described by Arthur Ashe in his book Hard Road To Glory, “black America’s first star in field events.”

The son of educators, Cable’s mother Mary, for decades, was an influential teacher and principal in the Indianapolis Public Schools system. Also the organizer and first president of Indiana’s first NAACP chapter, Mrs. Cable is the namesake of the Mary Cable Social Justice Center on the campus of IUPUI.

Son Ted — a standout student at Shortridge High School — earned his way to Harvard and as a freshman was recruited to tryout for the Crimson’s track and field team when Coach Pat Quinn put out a call for weight throwers. Before long Cable wasn’t just throwing the hammer, but competing in the 220-yard dash and the broad jump as well.

It didn’t take long for Cable to become a school record holder. At the spring handicap games in 1911 he tossed the 16-pound hammer 150-7 4/5, about a foot longer than the previous mark. The next year he dominated the Harvard-Yale meet, winning both the hammer and the broad jump (at nearly 23 feet). Later that year, at the IC4A Championships, Cable became the first African American in the meet’s history to win the hammer throw competition, a feet he’d repeat in 1913. Invited to the 1912 U.S. Olympic Trials as both a thrower and a jumper, he was inexplicably left off the team for Stockholm, even though his performances dictated that he’d have been a serious medal threat.

At the spring handicaps in his senior year, Cable pushed his school record to 165-2, which was among the best in the world for the year and not too far from the world record at the time.

But he was far from laser-focused on athletics. According to the Amsterdam News in New York, he was the first black student to be elected to the Harvard Symphony Orchestra and later played with the Indiana Theater Orchestra.

After graduation, Cable returned to Indiana where he would earn a degree from the Indiana University School of Dentistry and become a wing commander in the Indiana National Guard. He’d eventually own his own plane and served as a captain in the Indiana Civilian Air Patrol.

He was the first African-American Democrat elected to the Indianapolis City Council and served two terms in the Indiana General Assembly.

Cable and his wife Janice moved from Indianapolis to New York City in the late 1940s and he remained active in both society and sports until his 1963 death, at the age of 72, as a result of an auto accident.

Here are a series of Black History Month stories, specifically related to track and field, that were produced while I served at the Ivy League Office:

Denis Elton Cochran-Fikes, Penn
The Brothers Granger, Dartmouth & Penn
Calvin Hill, Yale
Ben Johnson, Columbia
Stephen Machooka, Cornell
Patricia Melton, Yale
Theresa Moore, Harvard
Wendell Mottley, Yale
Kwaku Ohene-Frempong, Yale
Chris Ohiri, Harvard
Meredith Rainey Valmon, Harvard
Bo Roberson, Cornell
Deborah St. Phard, Princeton
Jesse Spikes, Dartmouth
The Sisters Taylor, Brown & Harvard
John Baxter Taylor, Penn
J. Mayo Williams, Brown

Brown — The Bears had a solid showings at the BU Terrier Invitational this weekend, propelled by (and in several cases outperforming) strong efforts from professional and post-collegiate athletes … The men’s DMR (Matt Duffy, Anthony Schurz, Nathan Elder, Duriel Hardy) set the tone for Friday’s competition, posting 9:55.80 to earn the squad second place and a spot on Brown’s top ten all-time list … Juniors Lucy Higgins and Jasmine Chukwueke finished second and third in the 500m, running ECAC qualifying marks of 1:15.55 and 1:15.61 … Junior Kesley Ramsey followed suit, posting 4:57.65 in the mile to qualify as well … The most noteworthy women’s performance on the track came from freshman Bree Shugarts in the 1k, where she lit up the stands with a gutsy kick in the last 100m to finish second overall with a time of 2:53.22, eighth-best in school history … Senior Dani Grunloh bested the field in the shot with a throw of 48-5 1/4 to win … Junior Gabrielle Baiter closed out the night’s successes with a jump of 38-3 1/4 in the triple, making her the first collegiate finisher, third overall … In Day 2 of competition, Brown’s men had several strong performances … Seniors Reginald Cole and Andrew Chapin swept the triple jump, claiming first and second with jumps of 47-11 3/4 and 46-8 respectively … Senior Bryan Powlen had a strong showing in the shot with a throw of 53-3 1/2 to finish fifth overall … Senior Duriel Hardy posted a personal best of 4:10.95 in the mile, qualifying for IC4As along with junior teammate Brian Schilder, who finished in a personal-best 4:14.65 … The men also demonstrated depth in the middle distances, qualifying four sophomores — Dan Lowry, Matt Duffy, Anthony Schurz and Tom Elnick — to IC4As in the 1k. (Report filed by Rachel Baker)

Columbia — Breaking school records is beginning to seem commonplace for the Columbia women this indoor season … Highlights from this weekend’s Armory Invitational include sophomore Monique Roberts continuing her dominance by winning the high jump with a clearance of 5-11 1/2, surpassing her previous record of 5-11 1/4 set last weekend … The 4×400m squad (Kyra Caldwell, Sharay Hale, Yamira Bell, Kristen Houp) garnered a convincing victory with a tremendous time of 3:42.60, comfortably erasing last year’s school record of 3:47.67 in the process … Hale and Caldwell would also show their composure and persistence by coming back the following evening with more great performances — Hale with an incredible 1:11.24 clocking to win by more than two seconds in the 500m event and put to rest the long standing 500m school record set in 1986 by Heather Ruddock … Caldwell placed second in the 60m hurdles in 8.67, just shy of her own school record of 8.64 set in 2009. (Report filed by Gerry Groothuis)

Cornell — The Big Red women competed at the NYC Armory and emerged victorious, scoring 162 points at a meet with stiff competition … Cornell won only two events, but demonstrated its depth by tallying consistent points … Amidst a number of strong performances, Melissa Hewitt stood out as a leader for the team, placing first in the 60 (7.59) and second in the 200 (24.91) … The other athlete to grab a victory was Jessica Weyman in the 400, clocking a 55.99 … She also contributed on the 4×400 meter relay, which placed second in a 3:44.92. The jumping squad showed itself a force to be reckoned with as sophomore Kristen Brandt led the charge, leaping to second place in both the long (17-11) and triple jumps (38-5). Sam Brady cleared 11-9 3/4 in the pole vault, giving her the No. 3 spot on the school’s all-time list … The 1,000-meter run was a standout event for the Red, which grabbed second, third, fourth and fifth. Led by Kim Standridge’s 2:51.13, that mark earned her a top-10 spot in the school record book … The men alternated between two venues with the 4×800-meter relay racing Friday night in the prestigious Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden … The squad of Tommy Roy, Nick Wade, Owen Kimple and Charlie Hatch raced to a fourth-place 7:39.81, before rejoining the team for more competition at the Armory the following day … On Saturday the Big Red were defeated by Princeton, losing by a just 16.5 points … Though the Big Red only had one event win, there were nine top three finishes … The win belonged to senior captain Duane Teixeira, whose 24-3 3/4 in the long jump cleared the IC4A standard … In response to the example set by their captain, the rookies rose to the occasion with a number of impressive performances … Freshman Nick Wade raced to an No. 6 all-time and IC4A qualifying time in the 800 while classmate Bruno Hortelano-Roig placed fifth in the 60 after going 6.92 in the prelims … Other standout freshman were Jedidiah Adarquah-Yiadon in the 60 (eighth, 7.02) and Daniel McCuiston (eighth, 2:30.33) in the 1000. (Report filed by Kate Murdoch)

Dartmouth — Multi-eventer Priscilla Trojano was the star for the Big Green at the Harvard multi-meet over the weekend when she ran a personal-best 2:26.33 in the pentathlon closing 800m run … That effort gave her the event win with 3,311 points, the best in Heps this season … Across the Charles River at the BU Terrier Classic, Natalie Stoll blazed to a win in the 500 in 1:14.54 to win by a full second … There is no 500 on the women’s Heps’ schedule, but she will be a strong competitor in the quarter … Monica Hernandez and Lizzie Short both had strong showings in the 3k as they hit the ECAC standard and broke the 10:00 barrier … Hernandez ran 9:53.70 while Short clocked 9:55.90 … Sprinters Connor Reilly and Muhammed Abdul-Shakoor continue to rank 1-2 in the Heps’ 60m dash and now Abdul-Shakoor is first in the 200 after running 21.86 at BU … Coach Barry Harwick thinks that rookie Anthony Romaniw is already running like a veteran in the 800 after he hammered out a 1:51.02 … Harwick thinks Romaniw will be among the Heps’ favorite at Leverone Field House later this month at the Championships … Four different Big Green runners scored huge PRs in the 3k … Phil Royer had a strong finish to cross the line in 8:19.63 (an 11-second best) … Adam Doherty cruised in at 8:27.81, an eight-second PR while sophomores Dylan Summmers and Peter Jankovsky ran 8:31 and 8:33 and neither had ever broken 8:45 … Barrett Folk continues to impress in the pole vault, clearing a new high of 15-5 1/2. (Report filed by Barry Harwick, as I retooled his weekly alumni email)

Harvard — The Crimson split up so it could compete at opposite sides of Boston as well as take some well-earned R&R … Three Crimson women competed at the Harvard Multi-Meet, continuing the recent success of the Crimson in the multis … Nicole Silva, Christine Reed, and Mary Hirst came third, fourth, and ninth respectively … Hirst won the shot put and came second in the high jump … Reed won the hurdles and came second in the 800m and long jump, while Silva came third in the long jump, shot put, and 800m events … Larger squads competed across town at the Boston University Terrier Classic … Frosh Carlyle Davis was the top female Crimson performer, taking second in the 800m (2:09.44, behind Nike’s Erin Donohue) and qualifying for ECAC Championships … Eliza Ives also qualified in the 5K (17:14.5) … On the men’s side, John Dingus, Darcy Wilson, and Brian Hill qualified for IC4As in the 500m (1:04.09), mile (4:11.79), and 800m (1:50.89) respectively … Wilson earned his third slot for IC4As, after posting qualifiers in the 800m and 1,000m earlier this season … Meanwhile, 2009 alum Becky Christensen competed in her first high jump competition as a professional last Friday, tying for third at the Millrose Games with a height of 5-8 3/4 … Being a part of one of the most renown indoor track meets in the world did not intimidate the jumper as she described the event “more like a show than a huge competition which made it really fun and relaxing… It was a great to start my season with a fun meet and a mark that I can build on.” (Report filed by Mary Boggs)

Penn — Six members of the men’s squad qualified individually for the IC4A Championships from the Penn State National in State College, Pa. … Freshman Tim Carey was among them in his first attempt in the 200m dash this year, as he was timed in 22.22, just two-hundreths of a second better than the qualifying time … Ssophomore Michael Cunningham became an easy qualifier in the mile after running 4:10.36 in a race where Binghamton’s Erik van Ingen cracked the four-minute barrier at 3:59.58 … In his first meet of the season, junior Luke Grau was clocked in 8:20.00 in the 3k, the sixth-fastest time in school history … And senior John Carelli soared 48-10 in his first triple jump of the season … All six of his jumps were beyond the IC4A standard … On Friday, junior James Foreman cleared 15-9 in the pole vault … Junior Kali Strother, who has the League’s top times in the 200 this year, has now posted one of the top 400m efforts in program history … She qualified for the ECAC Championships at Penn State with her finish of 56.92, fourth all-time at Penn … And senior Liza Lozovatskaya won the pole vault by crossing the bar at 11-9 3/4.

Princeton — Fred Samara’s Tigers won the New York Road Runners Saturday Night at The Armory II, earning 126 points to edge second-place Cornell, which finished with 109 1/2 points … The Heps entries were followed by Virginia with 82 1/2 and UConn with 82 … Sophomore Austin Hollimon continued to impress in the 400, winning the event in 47.65, his best mark of the season and two-tenths swifter than the NCAA Provisional Qualifying Standard time … Hollimon also helped the Tigers meet the NCAA Provisional mark in the 4×400 relay … Along with Ricky Kearney, Russell Dinkins and Mike Eddy, the group cruised in at 3:11.85 … Dinkins won the 500m in his first time out in the event, as his time of 1:01.70 is the second-fastest ever run by an Ivy Leaguer … Only Trinity Gray of Brown has run faster (1:01.36 in 2000) … Freshman Nathane Mathabane ran a 4:07.37 mile, the best time in the League this year, while senior Justin Frick won the high jump, clearing an NCAA Provisional 7-1 … The Tiger women were third at the event, behind Cornell and Villanova, but junior Tiffany Liu won the long jump reaching 18-4 1/2, a new personal best, on her first leap … Freshman Tory Worthen won the pole vault, this time topping 13-1 1/2 … Some of Coach Peter Farrell’s Tigers will return to The Armory next weekend to compete at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational … The others will head to New Haven, Conn., for Yale’s Glegengack Invitational.

Yale — Like Harvard, the Yale men and women split up this weekend with both teams traveling north to Boston … The women competed Friday at the Boston Indoor Games at the Reggie Lewis Center and the men competed Saturday at the Terrier Classic at BU … For the women, Yale’s top performer was junior middle distance standout, Kate Grace, who used her finishing speed to win the mile run in an ECAC qualifying and League-best time of 4:56.34 … Freshman Nihal Kayali was a few spots behind finishing fifth overall with a time of 5:01.12 … In the sprints, freshman Adele Jackson-Gibson turned in another set of strong performances this week, placing second in the 55m with a time of 7.24 and fifth in the 200m with a season-best clocking of 25.96 … Just a few miles away and a day later, the Yale men turned in a day of strong performances on the notoriously quick BU track … Five Yale men qualified for the IC4A meet as senior middle distance Heps scorers Kevin Brown (2:28.35, 1000m) and Chris Labosky (1:51.70, 800m) both exhibited a return to form posting indoor personal bests and dipping well under the IC4A standards in their respective events … In the 5,000, junior Max Walden posted a League-leading time of 14:24.26 and freshman Demetri Goutos also snuck under the IC4A standard in his 5k debut (14:45.86) … In the sprints both junior Marty Evans and sophomore Matt Bieszard performed impressive 200-400 doubles … Evans posted season bests and IC4A qualifiers of 49.10 and 22.17 while Bieszard followed close behind with times of 49.48 and 22.37 … Both Yale squads will return home for competition next weekend at the Giegengack Invitational. (Report filed by Murat Kayali)

This is one of those stories that isn’t about either track or the Ivy League. Just a great story and an even better video about an athlete named Rahsaan Bahati. Click here to take a look.

What we know so far from the Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden, which is showing live on ESPN2:

• The Penn men finished fifth in the college 4×400-meter relay, struggling a bit on the sharp turns on the short course. The Quakers finished in 3:29.47, just about 10 seconds behind Mississippi State (3:19.44).

• The Cornell men took fourth in the 4×800-meter relay in 7:39.81. The Virginia Cavaliers were the victors, finishing in 7:32.49.

• Dartmouth graduate Adam Nelson took third in the shot put in 67-3 1/2. He fouled on three of his four attempts, including a spectacular fall on his opening throw. Christian Cantwell won the event with a best toss of 72-0 1/4.

• Harvard graduate Becky Christensen was tied for third in the high jump with a clearance of 5-8 3/4 while champion Sheree Francis of Jamaica eclipsed the bar at 6-2.