The WAsteBAsket 2013-2014
Contents
2013 Outdoor Season Recaps Men……………………………………………………………………………………… 3 Women…………………………………………………………………………………. 11
2013 Cross-Country Recaps Men………………………………………………………………………...... 18 Women…………………………………………………………………...... 21
Meet the 2013-2014 Captains…………………………………………………...... 26
The Freshman Perspective Men: Tobenna Attah……………………………………………………………………. 35 Women: Maya Golliday………………………………………………………………... 36
The Senior Perspective: Bruno Hortelano……………………………………...... 37
The Alumni Perspective: Katie Kellner………………………………………...... 40
2014 Indoor Heps Recaps Men…………………………………………………………………………………….. 43 Women……………………………………………………………………………….... 45
2014 Outdoor Season Recaps Men………………………………………………………………………………………48 Women…………………………………………………………………………………..52
Awards and Captains…………………………………………………………………………..57
Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………………………58
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2013 Men’s Outdoor Season
Heps: In what has been billed as “the best dual meet in the country,” the #19 nationally-ranked Big Red men slugged it out all weekend against Princeton at the Heps. While Cornell came up second (190-162), there are many highlights of the fantastic weekend of field and track.
*Junior Bruno Hortelano-Roig put on a sprinting clinic in winning the 200, 400, 4x100, and anchoring the runner-up 4x400 relay. In the 400, Bruno ran 46.60, breaking Charlie Moore’s school record that dates back to 1949! He was named the Track MVP of the meet.
*Sophomore Stephen Mozia was named Field MVP of the meet, winning the shot put, placing 4th in the discus, and grabbing 5th in the hammer throw.
Sprinting/Hurdling Highlights: Setting the tone for an exciting Sunday, the 4x100 meter relay of Ryan Hynes (FR), Bruno Hortelano-Roig (JR), JD Adarquah- Yiadom (SR), and Kinsley Ojukwu (JR) blew apart the field in 40.19 for a monster win, setting the Heps meet record and moving to #2 in school history. In the 100 meter prelims, JD Adarquah-Yiadom sped to #10 all- time at Cornell in 10.59. Also qualifying for the finals were Kinsley Ojukwu (10.61) and Chris Bain (10.66). Freshman Ryan Hynes just missed qualifying at 10.76. In the finals, JD set the #4 mark in school history in placing 2nd in 10.45. Ojukwu and Bain suffered injuries in the finals while giving it their all. In the 200 prelims, Bruno Hortelano-Roig set the #2 mark in school history at 20.75. Kinsley Ojukwu (21.13, #7 all-time) and JD Adarquah-Yiadom (21.68) also qualified for the finals, where Bruno won over 3-time 100m Heps champion and Brown running back John
Spooney in a time of 20.82. Adarquah-Yiadom Stephen Mozia ‘15 finished 6th in 21.60 and Ojukwu was unable to compete due to injury. In the 400, Hortelano-Roig qualified for the finals in 47.51 (#6 all-time) and was joined by freshman Larry Gibson in a seasonal best 48.26. In the finals, Bruno smoked the field in a school record 46.60 and Gibson placed 4th in 48.52. In the 4x400 meter relay, the team of Larry Gibson (FR), Max Hairston (FR), Andre Anderson (JR), and Bruno Hortelano- Roig (JR) ran 3:13.34 to grab runner-up honors. Freshman Max Hairston qualified for the finals in 14.10 (#3 in school history) before finishing 2nd in the finals. Hot on his heels was senior Zack Zeller, running 14.37 in the prelims and 14.31 to place 4th in the finals. Zeller made the most of his first outdoor Heps as his performance is #7 all-time at Cornell. In the 400m hurdles, Andre Anderson (JR, 52.91) and Max Hairston (FR, 53.48) both qualified for the finals where Andre placed 4th in 53.47 and Hairston 6th in 53.97.
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Throwing Highlights: Sophomore Stephen Mozia continued to terrorize the league in picking up Field MVP honors. Stephen won the shot put in 61’4.75” and placed 4th in the discus at 171’6”. In the hammer, Mozia placed 5th (185’5”) and senior captain just missed scoring by 2 centimeters in 182’10” (7th place). Sophomore transfer Rob Robbins continued his impressive introduction to the league as he won the javelin with one throw in 227’8” before passing on his last 4 attempts! Welcome to the league Rob!
Distance Highlights: The steeplechasers stole the show on Sunday as freshman Connor Herr served notice to the league by challenging for the win and placing 2nd in 8:55.41. In the process, Connor smashed the freshman record is now #7 all-time at Cornell. Senior Teddy Brinkofski ran 8:57.07 (#8 all-time) to place 5th and sophomore David Melly placed 10th in 9:15.44. Battling illness, junior Will “Big Bird” Weinlandt fought his way into the scoring column, qualifying for the finals in 1:50.60 before placing 6th in the final at 1:50.50. Nick Wade concluded his magnificent college career in the 1500, qualifying for the finals in 3:49.75 where he placed 8th in 3:55.02 in a tactical final. Wade was the top XC runner in the fall and was the Heps MVP at the indoor meet. Also running the 1500 was senior Will McFall who ran 3:50.58 in the prelims. In the 4x800 relay, the group of Will McFall (SR, 1:53.9), Eric Bice (JR, 1:49.8), Hong Cho (SO, 1:52.5), and Nick Wade (SR, 1:51.8) ran 7:27.92 for 3rd place (#9 all-time at Cornell). Running the 10k for the Big Red were Brett Kelly (SR, 11th, 30:13.88), Max Groves (JR, 14th, 30:24.98), and Matt McCullough (SR, 17th, 30:50.13). Kelly also placed 17th in the 5k in 14:59.51.
Jumping Highlights: Junior Montez Blair continued his dominance in the high jump winning at 7’1” as junior Tommy Butler placed 4th in 6’9.5”. Freshman Stephen Afadapa was tied for 8th in 6’4.25”. Cornell came up big in the pole vault as sophomore Steven Pawlak placed 2nd in 16’2.75” (#8 all-time) and was joined by senior Peter Roach (4th, 15’9”), sophomore Keith Rayburn (6th, 15’3”), and junior David Kim (7th, 15’3”). In the long jump, junior Steve Bell exploded with a 24’9” last jump to place 2nd, just a centimeter from the win in the #10 Larry Gibson ’16 jump in school history. Hercules Stancil (JR) placed 3rd and Bruno Hortelano-Roig ‘14 in 24’1”, junior Montez Blair was 5th in 23’8”, and senior Jourdan White placed 9th in 22’11.25”. In the triple jump, junior Dan Scott placed 5th in 49’5” and was followed by Steven Bell (10th, 46’7.25”) and junior Zinzan Fern (12th, 46’6.75”).
Multi Highlights: Junior Mike Rabbitt placed 4th in a very competitive decathlon, scoring 6928, #2 all-time at Cornell.
IC4A: For the first time since 1951, the Cornell Big Red Men are outdoor IC4A champions! Cornell is also the first Ivy League team to win the event since 1982. Cornell scored 68 points to
4 outdistance IC4A-newcomer BYU’s 56 points. Trailing by 36 points after the first two days of competition, the Red had a very strong Sunday to surge to the team win.
In the scoring column: *Sophomore Rob Robbins broke the school record on his last throw to win the javelin in 233’4” and had 2 of the best 3 throws of the competition. *Sophomore Stephen Mozia had 3 of the top 4 marks in the shot put, winning in 59’0” on Sunday after finishing runner-up in the discus with a 189’1” heave on Saturday. *Junior Steven Bell won the long jump in an impressive 24’7” as junior Hercules Stancil 23’7.5” placed 7th. *Junior Andre Anderson set a half-second personal best of 52.35 in the 400 meter hurdle preliminaries before placing 3rd in the final in 52.56. *Junior high jumpers Montez Blair (7’1.5”) and Tommy Butler (6’10.25”) finished 3rd and 4th, respectively, in yet another aerial assault by the high-flying duo. *The men’s 4x800 relay team placed 4th (7:36.27) in a tight final, less than a second from the win behind legs from Matt Crawford (FR, 1:56.8), Elliott Rosenberg (SR, 1:54.5), Hong Cho (SO, 1:52.4), and Eric Bice (JR, 1:51.6). In the prelims, Cornell ran 7:33.52 with splits from Crawford (1:53.9), Rosenberg (1:54.1), Cho (1:54.2), and Bice (1:51.3). *Junior Bruno Hortelano-Roig turned in a pair of 6th place sprinting efforts in the 100 and 200. In the 100, Bruno ran 10.74 in the prelims and 11.33 in the finals. Bruno ran 21.33 twice in the 200, running identical times in both the prelims and finals.
NCAA First Round: With a throw of 189' 5” in the discus, sophomore Stephen Mozia finished the event in fifth place to easily earn one of the 12 spots in the national meet.
“I was actually a little worried about it because I did qualify last year and I was so close in both events,” Mozia said. “It's nice to know I'm definitely going to Oregon.”
Mozia just missed the NCAA Outdoor Championship last year, though he did make the NCAA Indoors this season.
On his last attempt of the day in the final flight, Mozia was two feet better than his second throw for his final distance of 189' 5”. Mozia will compete again in the shot put on Friday.
“I'm going to practice a little bit, take an ice bath and eat a whole bunch of fruit,” Mozia said. “That's all I can do.”
Senior Brett Kelly ended his college career with a 26th-place showing in the 10k. A deluge began just before the race got under way, and the 48 competitors kept a slow pace through the quickly dampening track. Coming into the night as the eight seed, Kelly finished in a time of 30:25.01 after leading for nearly half the race before falling off the pace.
Junior Steven Bell had the closest of close calls in the long jump, finishing in 17th place and missing a spot in the final round of jumps by just a quarter inch. His final leap of the day, good for 23' 8”, was just behind South Florida's Neamen Wise who reached 23' 8 1/4”.
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Hercules Stancil also competed in the long jump for the Big Red on Thursday, reaching 22' 10 1/2” on his final jump of the day. He was in 10th place after half the field had jumped, but he would go on to finish in 32nd place, two ahead of his seed entering the meet.
In the pole vault, Stephen Pawlak and Peter Roach represented the Big Red. Pawlak, a sophomore, cleared 15' 7” on his second attempt but could not get over 16' 3/4” on three attempts at that height.
Roach, though, cleared 16' 3/4” on his first try with ease, and he sat tied for first place after that height. Roach could not clear the next height of 16' 6 3/4”, and he finished his trip to Greensboro tied for 30th place.
Jedidiah Adarquah-Yiadom ended his solo college career with a 100-meter dash time of 10.69 seconds. The senior was the 46th finisher in the field, but he will still run for the Big Red in the men's 4x100 relay on Saturday evening.
Andre Anderson was Cornell's lone hurdler to compete on Thursday, and he finished the 400 hurdles in 52.38 seconds. That mark was just .03 off his seasonal best, and it got him 29th place in Greensboro. Anderson bettered his seed by six places while running in the second lane.
Will Weinlandt raced later in the evening in the 800, and he placed eighth in his heat in 1:56.00.
Mozia also reached the NCAA Outdoor Championship in the shot put one day after doing the same in the discus. He finished fifth in the discus and matched that finish in the shot.
His third throw in the first round was his best, reaching 60' 9 3/4” to finish the first flight in third place overall. After the final round, Mozia fell to first place but still easily made the national championship meet for the second straight day.
“I honestly just treat it like a normal track meet,” Mozia said. “With my first throw I was in, but with that third throw I solidified it.”
Mozia only had one day to recuperate in between the discus and the shot in Greensboro, but he'll get nearly two weeks before he has to throw again in the Pacific time zone. Brett Kelly ‘13
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“I don't plan on resting,” Mozia said. “I just plan on going twice as hard. … I'm best when I'm sore, so I'm going to keep working hard the way I've been doing.”
Robbins opened the day for the Big Red with his strong javelin throwing. The sophomore transfer took 10th in the javelin with a throw of 227' 8”. Robbins entered the event as its seventh seed after breaking the Cornell record earlier in the year with a hurl of 233' 4”.
Robbins was four places shy of reaching the national meet last year while a freshman at Kent State.
“Coming in this year I knew I could make it,” Robbins said. “It's relieving being able to go this year.”
He was seventh through the first three throws and elected not to throw in the final flight when only a small number of the competitors below him in the standings passed his mark. He finished the day in 10th place.
“I was nice to get one out there so I could cruise through the rest of the rounds and not worry about [exerting] myself to get into the top 12,” Robbins said.
Freshman Connor Herr had a strong showing in the men's steeplechase in the final event of the night. As the 19th seed coming into Friday's competition, Herr finished the night in 9:21.61 for 39th place.
Max Hairston advanced to Saturday's final in 110 hurdles. Running in his heat in 13.97 seconds, he finished fourth to just miss the automatic advancement that comes from finishing in the top three. But after all six heats were completed, the next three fastest times advance as well. Hairston was the third and final at-large qualifier, beating out the fourth at-large runner by .02 seconds.
Bruno Hortelano-Roig missed qualifying for the final round Rob Robbins ‘15 of the 200 in heartbreaking fashion. Competing in the final heat, the senior finished in 21.156 seconds for fourth in the heat and missing third place by .003 seconds. The top three runners in each heat earned automatic qualification to Saturday's finals. Instead of getting an automatic qualifier, the senior finished the round in 29th place.
The men's 4x100 team may have been the strongest performance for the Big Red as it reached the national championship with a run of 39.85 seconds. That time, just .02 seconds away from the school record, means Cornell will be the first Ivy League team at the national meet since 1978.
With Ryan Hynes leading off, Jedidiah Adarquah-Yiadom running second, Bruno Hortelano- Roig running third and Kinsley Ojukwu on the anchor leg, that quartet bested its own previous
7 best by .34 seconds and dipped under the 40-second mark for the first time.
“As soon as I gave it to the anchor, I saw the whole field and I knew we were running so fast,” Hortelano-Roig said. “I knew something good was coming for sure.”
Cornell finished fourth in the fastest heat in the event, coming in just .001 seconds behind third- place Ohio State. But the Big Red picked up the first of three at-large berths in the national championship meet and actually ran the seventh-fastest time of the 24 teams in Greensboro despite coming in as the 17 seed.
“I really missed the team last year, and coming back this year and doing this well is beyond belief,” said Hortelano-Roig, who did not compete at Cornell last year to train with the Spanish national team. “I think we wrote history today. We did something that was pretty amazing.”
Blair was Cornell's final qualifier of the day, clearing 7' 1 1/2” in the high jump as his last mark. The junior cleared all four of his heights on his first attempt: 6' 8 3/4”, 6' 10 3/4”, 7' 1/4” and 7' 1 1/2”. He will be attending the national championship meet for the second straight year, and he also reached the indoor championship meet this season.
“History is made one step at a time, so let's keep it at that,” Blair said. “This is step one.”
Blair, who came into the event as the fourth seed, wound up tying for first as one of just four athletes who cleared 7' 1 1/2”. With no other athletes pushing him to bigger heights, the competition was ended before Blair could have a chance at personal and school records.
Also competing in the high jump for the Big Red was Tommy Butler. The junior went over 6' 6 3/4” and 6' 8 3/4” on his first tries and cleared 6' 10 3/4” on his second. But he could not get over 7' 1/4” – which would have been a quarter inch shy of a personal best – and instead finished the competition tied for 20th place.
“I was really hoping that my teammate made it in with me,” Blair said of Butler. “Maybe next year we'll get it. … We'll do some work.”
For the third consecutive day, the Big Red track and field teams sent an athlete to the NCAA Outdoor Championship in the team's first event of the day. Junior Dan Scott competed in the triple jump in the early afternoon, and his first jump proved to be his best. Scott leapt 48' 3/4” as the fourth jumper of the day, finishing his flight in 10th place. Scott entered the competition as the 38th seed and ended the day in 40th place overall.
Another Cornell freshman saw his season come to an end in the 110 hurdles. After qualifying for Saturday's final in a personal-best time on Friday, Hairston suffered an unfortunate fall while attempting to clear a hurdle late in the race.
NCAA: Sophomore Stephen Mozia earned his first career first-team All-American honors with a terrific 8th place effort of 61-6 1/4. His best effort was in the second round and four of his five legal
8 throws were over 60 feet. This was Mozia's third appearance at the NCAA Championships (twice indoors and now outdoors) and he continues to move up the ladder: 16th indoors in 2012, 11th indoors in 2013 and now 8th in 2013 outdoors.
For the first time in 35 years, an Ivy League team competed in the 4X100 and the Big Red quartet of freshman Ryan Hynes, senior co-captain Jedidiah Adarquah-Yiadom, junior Bruno Hortelano-Roig and junior Kinsley Ojukwu finished fifth in their heat. Racing outside in lane 8, Cornell ran 40.29 to place 19th to earn honorable mention All-American honors.
The Big Red picked up two more All-American certificates on Friday at the NCAA Finals in Eugene, OR as sophomore Stephen Mozia again earned first team All-American honors and junior Montez Blair made the second team All-American list.
Mozia had a phenomenal day in the discus, breaking his own school record on his second throw, reaching 197-11 to place sixth. After a fine eighth place effort in the shot put on Wednesday, Mozia will again be a First Team All-American. He now has four All-American honors in his career.
Blair earned his fourth career second team All-American honor with a 13th place finish, clearing 7-0 1/2. Over 6-8 3/4, then 6-10 3/4 and 7-0 1/2 on his first attempts at those heights, Blair stalled out at 7-2 1/2, missing all three attempts but improved one place on his finish here in 2012. The competition was a fantastic one as 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Derek Drouin of Indiana cleared 7-8 to out-duel 2012 Olympic silver medalist Erik Kynard of Kansas State, who cleared 7-7.
Also competing extremely well on Saturday was sophomore Rob Robbins, who exceeded pre-meet form-charts to advance to the javelin final. He ended up ninth overall. His best throw of the day was a clutch one: a 229-11 bomb in his third round, which moved him into position to advance to the nine person final and earned him three more throws. The Cornell school record holder (and Heps and Montez Blair ‘14 IC4A champion this year), Robbins is now a second team All-American as well.
USATF: Montez Blair '14 continued his terrific junior year with a truly outstanding third place finish in the high jump, clearing 7-4 1/2. This meet also serves as the selection meet for the IAAF World Championships (to be held in Moscow in August). Qualifying rules are complicated but in general, the U.S. can send three athletes per (provided their seasonal bests also hit the World
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Championships criteria) and if Montez is able to improve his personal best by one centimeter by July 20 he can be added to Team USA! Montez has already been selected to represent the United States at the World University Games in Moscow in July so he will have a few more opportunities to hit the IAAF standard in the coming weeks! He had a great day on Sunday, clearing 7-0 1/2 on his first attempt. was over 7-2 1/2 on his second and cleared 7-4 /12 on his first attempt before missing at 7-5 1/2. We will keep you posted on Montez's status for Team USA at the World Championships! The four time All-American once again stepped up big at the USA Championships - he finished seventh last year at the Olympic Trials. And Stephen Mozia '15 finished up a sophomore year in which he earned three All-American honors by placing ninth (only one place removed from the final) in the shot put with a mark of 62-8 3/4. On Friday, he placed 14th in the discus at 183-11.
Max Hairston '16 wrapped up a terrific freshman year with a 13th place finish of 14.41 in the junior men's 110 hurdles. The indoor Heps champion indoors in the 60 hurdles, Hairston has had a remarkably consistent and high-level debut year for the Big Red.
World Championships: Rising senior Bruno Hortelano-Roig completed a tremendous set of races at the World Championships this morning in Moscow. Running for Spain in the 4x100 meter relay heats, the team set a new Spanish national record to place 4th in its heat (and 9th overall) in 38.46, missing the finals by a mere 0.05 seconds.
To recap Bruno's performances in Moscow: *20.47 in the 200 meter heats, setting a new school record and Spanish national record *20.55 in the 200 meter semi finals *38.46 in the 4x100 meter heats, setting a new Spanish national record
Bruno Hortelano-Roig ‘14
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2013 WoMen’s Outdoor Season
The Cornell Women’s Track and Field Team had a very successful 2013 outdoor campaign, winning the outdoor Heps for the second straight year before producing outstanding performances at the ECAC Championships, the NCAA First Round and then at the NCAA Championships, where four Cornellians earned All-American honors.
Heps: Competing in beautiful spring-time weather on both days of the meet, the Big Red saw contributions across the board in winning their second straight outdoor Heps team title (and 10th outdoor title in 12 years and 17th track title in the past 24 track Heps, including indoors) as the team scored 145 points. Senior co-captain Victoria Imbesi won Field Event Athlete of the Meet honors (becoming just the seventh Cornell woman to win Athlete of the Meet honors), senior co- captain Katie Kellner and junior Rachel Sorna tripled in the distance races to lead a dominant team performance in the four long races and a true team effort of competitive efforts in all of the event groups propelled the Big Red to four events and eight runner-up event finishes. Here's a further attempt to quantify their achievements: there were an amazing 28 scoring performances, 42 ECAC qualifying performances, 8 Cornell performances that were among the top 10 in meet history, two freshman records, a school record, and 13 changes to the school top ten lists. But this team effort goes far beyond the numbers. After an outstanding series of Big Red performances at the indoor Heps that saw the Big Red finish a mere 4.3 points from first, this group of women was determined to leave no stone un- turned in returning to Ithaca with a team championship.
Although the Big Red ended up 24 points ahead of a fine Columbia team and 27 ahead of indoor Rachel Sorna ‘14 champion Harvard, the meet was still in question heading into the final events. The Big Red was able to put together a terrific first day points- wise and in terms of qualifiers but a highly competitive women's League meant that the Cornell women had their work cut out for them all weekend. The Big Red got on the board early as senior Claire Dishong tied for second in the pole vault with a clearance of 12-2 1/2, to earn her highest finish at the Heps. Soon thereafter, the Big Red got a huge boost in the javelin, thanks to three personal bests and several clutch efforts. Imbesi came through big-time on her final throw. Needing a PR and school record of nearly three feet to win the event, she calmly waited for conditions to be right to unleash a monster heave of 158-5 to move from fourth into first, not only a new school record by five feet but the fourth best throw in meet history. Earlier, senior 11
Brittany Dombrowski had a five foot PR to reach 146-2 to get third and sophomore Felicia Reid had a big sixth round PR of 144-0 to get fifth; Dombrowski is #3 all-time at Cornell and Reid is #4 all-time.
That set the stage for a terrific conclusion to Saturday's day one as the Big Red distance women claimed a phenomenal 21 points in the 10K. All-Americans Kellner and Sorna dictated the pace throughout, as they began what would be the first races in an unprecedented weekend of tripling in the long distance races. As they would in each of their races on the weekend, Sorna and Kellner controlled the 10K from the front. With junior standout Devin McMahon running very well in support of her teammates doing the pace setting, the Big Red had three of the top four most of the race and hit 5K in 16:58. Kellner waged a great battle with Brown All-American Olivia Mickle over the final few laps, running a 5:09 final mile to place first by .21 in 33:29.64, the second best time of her career and the third best time in meet history. Competing in her first ever 10K, Sorna ran 33:34.59 for third, making her the #2 all-time performer at Cornell, a time that was also the fifth best in meet history. McMahon ran an excellent race, 27 seconds faster than last year, to place fourth in 34:27.26, the tenth best time in meet history. And senior Kate Rosettie, in her first outdoor Heps, ran a great race of her own, executing her race plan to perfection as she pulled away from the main chase pack in the last two miles to place sixth in 34:57.12. Freshman Dina Iacone also ran extremely well at her first track Heps, placing eleventh in 35:55.13, an ECAC qualifier by over 90 seconds.
A critical part of the story on day one were the qualifiers that made it through to Sunday's finals. In the first prelim on the track, the 400 trio of sophomore Zena Kolliesuah (54.19, #2 all- time at Cornell), junior Ebolutalese Airewele (54.64, #5 all-time) and freshman Udeme Akpaete (55.10, #7 all-time) easily advanced to the finals with very impressive races; in fact, some of the best 400 preliminary races the Heps has ever seen. And later in the 200, Akpaete ran 24.35w (#5 all-time at Cornell) and Airewele ran 24.46 as both earned lanes in the final. In the 100 hurdles, junior Zaakirah Daniels ran a PR of 14.33 (a first-time ECAC qualifier for her) and sophomore Mina Amick-Alexis ran 14.36 as both qualified for the finals. And in the 400 hurdles, junior Ryan Woolley (61.07, an ECAC qualifier) and sophomore Emily Woodford (62.90, a big PR) both advanced to the finals as well. Just missing the finals by one place were a pair of middle distance runners who set personal bests and qualified for the ECACs: freshman Kristen Niedrach in the 1500 (4:31.10) and sophomore Elyse Wilkinson in the 800 (2:10.27).
Cornell ended day one in first place with 44 points and nine qualifiers through to finals, and also had a slew of top competitors in the field events and distance races ready and waiting to contribute as well.
Sunday's day two began much as Saturday's day one ended, with senior co-captain Katie Kellner in the lead of a distance race. The first event on the track was the 5K and Kellner took the lead 800 meters in, bringing the lead pack through a pair of 5:16 miles before engaging in a spirited battle over the final 1000 meters with Columbia All-American Waverly Neer, who was running fresh in her first event of the meet. Kellner ran a very strong final mile of 5:05 to place second in 16:17.61, the sixth best time in meet history. Not far behind was sister Caroline Kellner. The freshman ran an inspired race, putting herself in the lead pack from the early going and sticking with the top three (all of whom are All-Americans) until the final two laps. With mile splits of
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5:17, 5:15 and 5:12, Caroline Kellner earned her sash with a fourth place time of 16:23.62, also a new freshman record, #5 all-time at Cornell and among the top 15 times ever run at the Heps in the event. McMahon battled hard to finish in tenth in a fine 16:54.05 while Rosettie (14th, 17:14.62) and Iacone (18th, 17:22.67) also competed well the day after their 10K.
In the next event, the 4X100 of freshman Rochelle Forbes, Kolliesuah, Airewele and sophomore Katie Woodford came on strong to run an ECAC-qualifying time of 46.86 to place second, just behind first place Columbia. The very next event was the steeplechase and it was another show of force by the Cornell distance women, as trio of Rachel Sorna, senior Genna Hartung and freshman Claire DeVoe went 1-2-4 to secure 22 points. Sorna immediately took the lead and cruised to an impressive 9:58.96 to win her first Heps steeple title (and second career Heps title overall), also the second best time in meet history, less than half a second from the meet record. All-American Hartung had her best career Heps finish, pulling away from the rest of the field after 1000 meters, running 10:13.70, the fifth best time in meet history. And DeVoe ran a very composed race, moving up steadily to place fourth in 10:22.78, #5 all-time at Cornell, a new freshman school record and the tenth best time in meet history.
The Big Red next received points from freshman Hillary Holmes, who capped a very busy weekend (she also competed in the open long jump and open triple jump) with a very good fifth place finish of 4,666 points in the heptathlon, to move to #4 all-time at Cornell. She ran 15.14 in the 100 hurdles, cleared 5-3 in the high jump, reached 30- 9 3/4 in the shot put ran 26.75 in the 200, long jumped 18-3, threw 92-2 in the javelin (a PR) and ran 2:27.35 in the 800.
After the multi-event came a series of important (L to R) Felicia Reid ’14, Victoria Imbesi sprint and hurdle races that kept the Big Red on ’13, Brittany Dombowski ’13 track for a team title. In the 100 hurdle final, Daniels ran yet another PR to place fifth in 14.26, tied for #8 all-time at Cornell while Amick- Alexis ran a good race to get sixth in 14.32. The 400 was another very strong event for Cornell, as the Big Red took three of the six scoring places. Airewele led the way with a second place 55.08 and freshman Akpaete ran 55.61 to get fifth in her first Heps final. Kolliesuah came through with a sixth place 55.76 as the Big Red picked up 11 more points. And two more points came in the 400 hurdles, as Ryan Woolley was fifth in 61.41; Emily Woodford was eighth in her first Heps final, running 63.89. Airewele and Akpaete drew lanes 1 and 8 but still managed to run exceptional times of 24.44 in the 200 for seventh and eighth.
Even as the Big Red was having a very strong meet, a stellar 1-3-4 showing by Columbia in the 200 as well as big points in the triple jump for the Lions put Columbia in the team lead by five points heading into the final five events of the meet.
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And the Big Red answered the challenge. Imbesi won her second event of the meet, twice getting the shot put over 49 feet, winning the event for the second straight year with a best of 49- 1. And just after Imbesi's win, the Cornell distance crew took to the track one last time. In their third race of the weekend, the duo of Katie Kellner and Rachel Sorna again shot to the front, quickly establishing a fast tempo. Only All-Americans Abbey D'Agostino of Dartmouth (the Track Athlete of the Meet for the second straight year) and Neer of Columbia were able to go with them. D'Agostino won in a meet record and Sorna would not allow Neer to pass her, closing in 32 seconds for her final 200 meters to run 9:29.08 for a phenomenal second place, the seventh best time in meet history to conclude one of the most remarkable distance triples in meet history. And Kellner, on her 45th lap of the weekend, still closed in under 75 seconds, running 9:35.29 for fifth to complete her own epic 10K/5K/3K program. Caroline Kellner ran a very good race to get seventh in 9:47.00, Hartung was tenth in 9:50.82 and DeVoe ran 10:21.87 in her second race of the day. Sorna finished the weekend with a first place run in the steeplechase, second place in the 3K and third in the 10K, with performances that all rank in the top ten in meet history. Katie Kellner captured her second 10K title, placed second in the 5K (both performances in the top six in meet history) and added a tremendous 5th in the 3K; overall she led over 30 laps over the course of two days.
After the 3K, the Big Red lead was at nine and the team title was officially clinched in the high jump thanks to a pair of great efforts. Senior co-captain Ailish Hanly equalled her personal best (#2 all-time at Cornell) with a clearance of 5-10 (the eleventh best performance in meet history) in the high jump to place an outstanding second and freshman Liz Crissy did a great job to tie for fourth at 5-6. With those 11 points in hand, the Cornell women had a 20 point lead heading into the relays.
Even with a team title in hand, the relays continued to perform great. A young 4X800 of freshman Kristen Niedrach (2:15.0), sophomore Elyse Wilkinson (2:12.1), sophomore Abbie Clifford (2:11.8) and freshman Sarah Holl (2:18.5) ran 8:57.61 to place fifth. And in the 4X400, the Big Red closed out the meet with the seventh best time in meet history and the #9 performance in school history. The line-up of Woolley (55.9), Kolliesuah (54.8), Akpaete (54.9) and Airewele (54.3) placed second in a great race, running 3:39.96.
There were several other very strong non-scoring performances for Cornell on the weekend. Junior Kelley Roach made the finals in the triple jump, setting a PR to place seventh in 38-8 3/4. In the pole vault, senior Lindsey Patterson was seventh at 11-6 1/2. And Imbesi placed seventh in the discus (139-7) in addition to her shot put and javelin victories. Other performances included Forbes in the 100 (18th, 12.67), Holl in the 1500 (17th, 4:40.81), Clifford in the 400 hurdles (13th, 66.45), freshman Camryn Goodman in the discus (11th, 129-1), freshman Alexis Bartholomew in the pole vault (12th, 11-6 1/2), junior Dominique Corley, Anjelique Parnell (14th, 16-8 3/4) and Holmes (17th, 15-4 1/2) in the long jump, Holmes in the triple jump (9th, 38-2 3/4, missing the final by a mere centimeter), freshman Stephanie Izard in the high jump (11th, 5-3) and junior Jennifer Bush in the high jump (15th, 5- 3).
ECACs: The Cornell women's track and field team, fresh off their stirring championship last week at the
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Heps, returned to Princeton for the ECAC Championships. The team placed eighth with 31 points, on the strength of an ECAC champion, an ECAC runner-up, eleven All-East performers, seven scoring performances and a new school record from senior co-captain Victoria Imbesi.
Imbesi led the way with another terrific weekend at Princeton, claiming the ECAC title in the women's javelin, breaking her own school record for the second consecutive weekend with a big throw of 158-10 in the second round. She came back the next day with a consistent series in the shot put to place sixth at 49-0 1/4. Fellow co-captain and senior Ailish Hanly also competed well, clearing 5-7 1/4 to garner sixth place of her own in the high jump.
Cornell also had some very good scoring efforts on the track. Fresh off of earning their sashes at the Heps, freshmen distance runners Caroline Kellner and Claire DeVoe both scored this weekend as well. On Friday evening, DeVoe moved up extremely well in the latter stages of the 3K steeplechase, passing four people in the final two laps to place eighth in 10:31.98. Kellner ran a very strong tactical race in windy conditions in the 3000 on Sunday, closing her final 800 in 2:29 to place second, in her first ECACS, in 9:52.68.
Sophomore Zena Kolliesuah had a very good weekend. She won her heat of the 400 in wet conditions on Saturday in 54.97 to qualify for the final, and then came back to place eighth in a windy final in 55.19. Kolliesuah was also a part of two outstanding relay efforts. On Saturday, the line-up of Woolley (55.5), Kolliesuah (54.2), sophomore Emily Woodford (56.1) and junior Ebolutalese Airewele (53.9) ran 3:39.98, which is #10 all-time at Cornell, to advance to the finals. A slightly different line-up of Woolley (55.5), Kolliesuah (53.7), freshman Udeme Akpaete (55.2) and Airewele (54.5) ran 3:39.04 to place fifth in Sunday's finals to move to #7 all-time at Cornell.
NCAA Preliminary Round: A contingent of 13 women travelled to North Carolina A&T during Cornell’s Senior Week for the First Round of the NCAA Championships in Greensboro, NC. Each day provided memorable highlights as four Cornell women advanced to the NCAA Finals.
On day one, senior co-captain Katie Kellner joined Morgan Uceny '07 as the only female Cornellian to win an event at a Regional meet (and the first since the current format was adjusted in 2010), winning the 10K with a tremendous race on Thursday night, closing her final 800 meters in 2:30 (and her last lap in 73) to run a seasonal best 33:17.39. She qualified for the NCAA Finals for the second straight year and has now run seven of the ten fastest times ever at Cornell in this event, including the top three and four of the top five.
The very next day, junior Rachel Sorna (easily winning Katie Kellner ‘13 her heat) and senior Genna Hartung (for the second
15 straight year) in the 3000 steeplechase both advanced. And in the final day of competition, senior co-captain Victoria Imbesi earned her second career trip to the NCAA Finals in the javelin, finishing seventh in a school record 159-6.
NCAA Finals: Senior co-captain Katie Kellner made her final NCAA Championships a memorable one, competing extremely well throughout to finish 7th in the 10K on an unusually warm 80 degree evening at Hayward Field. The race was unusual as the pack went through 800 meters at a pedestrian 3:00, before the pace began picking up over the next few laps. Kellner was in the top eight throughout, covering the move of the leaders in the second mile and staying at the front of the main chase pack the rest of the way. With a fine 73 second final 400, Kellner finished in 33:45.31 to garner the best Cornell women's track finish at the outdoor NCAAs since Morgan Uceny '07 finished sixth in the 800 in 2007. Kellner concludes her NCAA career with three All- American honors: honorable mention in the 10K in 2012, cross country All-American in 2012 and now first team honors in the 10K in 2013.
Senior co-captain Victoria Imbesi concluded her legendary Cornell career with her first career All-American award, placing 11th in 157-7. One of the greatest throwers (male or female) in Cornell school history, she holds women's school records in the indoor and outdoor shot put as well as the javelin, has won 6 individual Heps titles, an ECAC title and was the Co-Most Outstanding Field Event Performer at this year's outdoor Heps. She now adds a second team All-American accolade in her second career trip to the NCAAs.
In the 3K Steeplechase semi-finals, junior Rachel Sorna ran a very controlled yet assertive race, placing second in the first heat, which also included 2012 Olympic Finalist and two-time USA champion Emma Coburn of Colorado, who went on to win the heat. Sorna led the main chase pack throughout and ended up crossing the line in 9:55.84, the second best time of the day between the two heats, to easily advance to Saturday's final.
Hartung was also in the first heat and concluded her NCAA career with a gritty effort. Gapped by the main pack early on, she fought back very well in the second half of the race to pass three runners, finishing ninth in the heat in 10:24.29, good for 18th overall in to earn Honorable Mention All-American honors in her second straight trip to the NCAA Finals.
And in Saturday’s finals of the steeplechase, Sorna ran a Genna Hartung ‘13 gritty race to place fourth in the 3000 steeplechase in 9:52.86. 2012 Olympian Emma Coburn of Colorado set a fast early pace which quickly strung out the pack on a sunny 75 degree day at a packed Hayward Field. Sorna didn't get the position she wanted in the first two laps but maintained her composure and competed hard throughout to earn First Team All-American honors. Running mostly by herself, she distanced herself from the
16 bulk of the field by 800 meters and maintained her fourth place position for the final 2000 meters and in the process again broke 10:00 (which is the USATF "A" standard) for the sixth time this season, a truly remarkable accomplishment. Sorna's fourth place finish (at her first outdoor NCAA meet) is the second best individual finish in Cornell women's school history at the outdoor NCAAs; fourth place has been bettered only Stephanie Best '91 (who was third in the 1500 in 1990 and 1991) in Cornell women's track and field history at these outdoor championships.
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2013 Men’s Cross-Country Season
Dual Meet vs. Army: Competing in rainy conditions and 55-degree temperatures on the home Moakley Course, the Big Red executed its pack-running strategy to perfection in defeating Army 19-40. Holding out its top four runners for strategic reasons, Cornell relied on its younger up-and-coming stars to shoulder the load.
Freshman Mark Tedder turned on the jets to win the race in 25:22.3 in his first-ever collegiate competition. Sophomores Brian Eimstad (3rd place, 25:23.7) and Ben Rainero (4th place, 25:24.1) were joined by junior Tyler Eustance (5th place, 25:25.5) in forming a tight four-man pack that finished within three seconds of each other. Junior Jon Phillips (6th place, 25:41.1) completed the scoring for the Big Red. Also competing well with top-ten finishes included sophomore Ty Kawalec (9th place, 26:03.4) and freshman Zack Israel (10th place, 26:05.8), competing for Cornell for the first time since transferring from Temple.
Boston College Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown: The Big Red men continued its pack-running attack to place 6th at the highly-competitive Boston College Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown at Franklin Park. #12-ranked Oregon won the meet with 22 points, followed by #9 Syracuse (69), #25 Providence (81), #8 Wisconsin (88), Northeastern (157), and Cornell (165).
Cornell's top seven finished a remarkable 17 seconds apart from each other as it executed its tight pack strategy in what was the first race of the season for several of the veterans. Senior captain Gabe Heck (30th place, 25:09), competing for the first time in 11 months, led the charge and Brian Eimstad ’16 and Ben Rainero ‘16 was quickly followed by Brian Eimstad (sophomore, 32nd, 25:10), Ben Rainero (sophomore, 36th, 25:11), Jon Phillips (junior, 41st, 25:21), Max Groves (senior, 44th, 25:24), Ben Potts (junior, 45th, 25:26), and Tyler Eustance (junior, 47th, 25:26).
Paul Short Invitational: Holding out its top eight runners, the Cornell men competed strongly in very hot weather at Lehigh's Paul Short Invitiational. Junior David Melly (25:17, 85th place) and Sophomore Ty Kawalec (25:23, 100th) led the Big Red charge in the men's championship gold race. Melly was 78 seconds faster than the season-opening meet against Army and Kawalec was 73 seconds faster than last year's Paul Short race!
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Pre-National Invitational: Competing against 9 nationally-ranked teams (including 5 teams ranked in the top 10), the Cornell men placed 34th on Saturday at the Pre-National meet hosted by Indiana State University, which included 52 teams and 359 finishers in the seeded race.
Sophomore Brian Eimstad moved up well in the second half of the race to lead the Big Red in 122nd place (24:46), marking the first time Brian has led the team this season after running as Cornell's second man in his first 2 races in 2013. Juniors Ben Potts (143rd, 24:55) and Tyler Eustance (168th, 25:01) closely followed. Completing the scoring for Cornell were freshman Mark Tedder (200th, 25:11) and sophomore Ben Rainero (201st, 25:11). Junior Jon Phillips finished 313th in 26:08.
In the open race, sophomore Ty Kawalec made things interesting by taking the lead early and pushing the pace through the half-way mark (4km in 12:15) and continuing to lead through 5k. Ty wound up 5th overall in 25:13 and junior David Melly closed the gap to finish 7th in 25:14.
Princeton Invitational: At the Princeton Invitiational the rest of the men's squad finished 11th out of 30 teams and 272 finishers. Freshman James Gowans, recovering from a knee injury earlier this season, was the top finisher in 58th place (24:54). Other top finishers: Sam Baxter (sophomore, 65th, 25:01), Kieran Kinnare (junior, 70th, 25:05), and George Oliver (sophomore, 96th, 25:15).
CUXC in Terre Haute, IN Reif Memorial Run: The Big Red men concluded the regular season at the John Reif Memorial today in cool and cloudy conditions. Shrugging off the cold temperatures, Cornell brought the heat on the race course! Utilizing the same gorge-less course as the season-opening dual meet against Army, six of the Big Red men raced over a minute faster than in early September.
Two years after a dramatic photo finish to determine the last Heps roster spot, senior Andrew Herring and junior Kieran Kinnare again battled for the last Heps roster spots. This year, both would snag Heps spots as Herring came through the first mile in 4:59 and led the Big Red throughout the race, finishing 9th in 25:10.5 to qualify for the Heps for the third consecutive year. Kinnare, a first cousin of the meet's namesake John Reif, continuted his breakthrough season to finish 10th in 25:15.8.
Also in the chase pack and running very good races were David Taylor (freshman, 11th place, 25:25.3), Sam Baxter (sophomore, 12th place, 25:29.6), Zack Israel (freshman, 13th place, 25:42.4), and George Oliver (sophomore, 14th place, 25:50.9).
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Heps: Competing in pleasantly warm conditions, the Cornell men finished 7th at the Heps with 181 points at Princeton's West Windsor fields course.
Improving by 52 places and 76 seconds from last year's Heps race, sophomore Brian Eimstad led the Big Red pack for the 2nd straight race in 23rd place with a time of 24:24.0. Packing together tightly, a trademark of the men's 2013 season, the Cornell contingent of senior Max Groves (40th overall, 24:22.2, 37th in team scoring), junior David Melly (43rd overall, 24:44.0, 39th in team scoring), freshman Mark Tedder (44th overall, 24:44.0, 40th in team scoring), junior Ben Potts (46th overall, 24:44.5, 42nd in team scoring), sophomore Ben Rainero (47th, 24:45.6), and junior Jon Phillips (52nd, 24:50.7) quickly followed Brian's lead. The spread between Cornell's first and fifth scoring runner was an impressive 20.5 seconds.
Senior captain Max Groves' race was notable as he had only been able to complete one race prior to Heps due to an oblique muscle strain. David Melly continues to have a breakthrough season, moving into a scoring role at a major race for the first time in his collegiate career.
NCAA Northeast Regionals: Competing in pleasant 55-degree weather in New York City's Van Cortlandt Park, the Big Red men finished their season by placing 9th out of 37 teams with 326 points at the NCAA Northeast Regional earlier today. The men were ranked 10th in the region coming into the meet. Competing without any seniors, Cornell's youth brigade gained valuable experience and oriented its compass for the future of Cornell men's cross-country.
Sophomore Brian Eimstad ran a very strong race to place 31st in 30:55.3, missing All-Region honors by a mere 6 places and 9 seconds. Brian has led the Big Red in each of his last 3 races. Junior David Melly continued his rapid ascent this season, placing 45th in 31:19.3 in his first-ever 10k on any surface. At this season's major meets, David has moved up through the team as the 11th (Army), 9th (Boston), 7th (Pre-Nats), 3rd (Heps), and 2nd (today) finisher. Sophomore Ty Kawalec (56th, 31:29.2, 55th in team scoring) has also improved dramatically this year. Last year as a freshman, he didn't make the roster but has steadily improved since last fall!
Freshman Mark Tedder (74th, 31:53.8, 73rd in team scoring) completed a very impressive rookie campaign, having run as the 4th man for Cornell in every meet in October and November. Junior Tyler Eustance (124th, 32:34.5, 122nd in team Ty Kawalec ‘16 scoring) completed the scoring for Cornell. Juniors Kieran Kinnare (141st, 32:56.1) and Ben Potts (did not finish due to injury) also competed for Cornell.
Thank you for your support this season!
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2013 woMen’s Cross-Country Season
The 2013 Cornell women’s cross country team again proved to be among the very best in the country. Nationally ranked the entire season, the Big Red women qualified for the NCAA Championships as a team for the second straight season and placed a strong second at the Heps. At the NCAA Champinships, the #24 ranked Big Red exceeded expectations with a 23rd place team finish, led by the remarkable racing of senior co-captain Rachel Sorna, who finished on the podium with a 14th place result, the best finish by a runner in a Cornell uniform since Hall of Famer Pam Hunt ’94 in 1992. The team enjoyed a very competitive regular season that saw very strong team results at three nationally competitive meets: Boston’s College’s Coast to Coast Battle of Beantown (third), Lehigh’s Paul Short Run (4th) and the highly competitive Wisconsin adidas Invitational (15th). Despite some injuries, the Big Red saw several runners step up to contribute to the scoring five throughout the season and it was indeed a full team effort that propelled the Big Red to national success.
Through it all, the Big Red were led by an outstanding group of 14 seniors. Indeed, Cornell’s top four finishers at the Heps and NCAA Regionals were seniors. And the heart and soul of the group all year long were senior co-captains Emmy Shearer and Rachel Sorna, who inspired their team to great heights throughout the fall campaign. Both Shearer and Sorna were First Team All-Ivy and All-Region for the second straight year, and indeed both finished in the top 10 in the Region, a feat accomplished by only three other Cornellians in the past fifteen years. At the NCAA Championships, Sorna was fearless in racing at the Rachel Sorna ‘14 front of the lead-pack before finishing as an All- American for the second straight year in cross country (and for the fourth time in her storied career) making her one of the most decorated female Cornellians in school history, for any sport.
The Big Red impressed off the course as well. Senior Devin McMahon not only competed at the NCAA cross country championships for the third time in her career, but was honored at the NCAA Cross Country banquet with the Elite 89 Award, a prestigious honor given to the student- athlete at each NCAA Championships with the highest GPA. McMahon also earned the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship for her academic and research excellence this summer. Meanwhile, Shearer was unable to compete at the NCAAs because of an unavoidable conflict. But the conflict was for a wonderful opportunity: to be a Rhodes scholar. Although she didn’t win the Rhodes, Shearer DID win the prestigious Marshall Scholarship, along with track and field teammate Sam Olyha and both have earned two years of graduate student in Great Britain.
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The team’s goal all year was to produce their best results in the championship portion of the season and to return to the NCAAs and do well. They were outstanding in achieving these goals. Here are some more details from our championship part of the year:
Heps: The #24 ranked Cornell women had their best team run of the 2013 season and produced three All-Ivy performances en route to a fine second place team finish at the cross country Heps on Saturday at Princeton's West Windsor Fields. The Big Red, the two-team defending team champions, scored 66 points to finish behind #11 ranked Dartmouth's 38 and ahead of #31 Harvard (73) and #23 Princeton (95). Columbia, which has also been nationally ranked this season, placed fifth with 101 points. Cornell was led by four seniors, including first team All- Ivy honorees and co-captains Rachel Sorna and Emmy Shearer, as well as second team All-Ivy honoree Liz Simpson and top 20 finisher Devin McMahon.
The Heps was held on a sunny, warm and pleasant afternoon and a great turnout of fans, alumni and family were on hand to witness an exciting race and a race in which the Big Red figured prominently. The Cornell women made sure that any championship went through them as they gave Dartmouth a tough test throughout. With four runners in the top fifteen and eight in the top 35 at half-way, the Big Red was very much in the hunt. Dartmouth senior Abbey D'Agostino, the 2011 champion and a four time NCAA Champion, set a blistering pace from the start en route to a wire to wire victory and Cornell's entire top five – and the bulk of the field – was through the mile aggressively in hot pursuit. Sorna came through the mile in fourth in 5:15 and led the Cornell charge throughout the race. Racing with great composure in the top eight was Shearer, who hit the mile in 5:16 and put herself in great position throughout the competition. Fellow seniors Simpson and McMahon were similarly well positioned in the top 15 while sophomore Kristen Niedrach hit the mile in 5:25 to round out the Big Red's top five.
By 3K, Sorna had worked her way into a fierce battle for second with fellow All-American Waverly Neer of Columbia while Shearer, McMahon and Simpson maintained great position. Junior Bori Tozser had moved into the Big Red's fifth position with a strong middle part of her race, followed closely by sophomores Caroline Kellner, Claire DeVoe and Niedrach. Kellner, returning from an early season injury in only her second race of the season, ran an inspired race, moving up steadily through the field the entire race as she tried to cut down the gap to Dartmouth's top five.
At the finish, Sorna claimed third with a tremendous race, running 20:22.5, a Cornell school record on the 6K course at Princeton (breaking by six seconds the mark set by Katie Kellner '13 last year when Katie claimed the individual title). Down 5.5 seconds to Neer with 1200 to go, Sorna closed the gap to a mere two seconds at the finish to claim first team All-Ivy honors for the second year in a row, pulling away from Princeton's top finisher in the last mile. Over the final two miles, Shearer was engaged in an epic battle with the #2 and #3 runners from Dartmouth as well as the #2 runner from Princeton. She competed and finished great, placing sixth in 20:31.7 to earn her third career All-Ivy honor and her second straight first team citation. Meanwhile, Simpson continued her breakthrough season with a fantastic finish. In her first career Heps race she made the most of the experience, earning second-team All-Ivy honors with a 14th place run of 21:13.8. McMahon battled hard throughout for her fourth straight top
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20 finish at the Heps, placing 19th in 21:29.1 for her best result of the season so far. The scoring five was closed out by an inspired finish from DeVoe, who passed 17 people in the final half of the race, including an amazing 10 in the final 1200 meters. She ultimately finished 24th in 21:33.7. Caroline Kellner, who did a terrific job pushing and pulling her teammates through the middle of the race, had a great finish in her first 6K of the season, running 21:45.3 for 32nd. Junior Corey Dowe rounded out the top seven with a great finish of her own, moving up 16 places in the second half of the race, ultimately crossing the line in 42nd in 22:01.7.
After her strong early start in which she helped pace the Cornell scoring five in the first third of the race, Niedrach finished well in her first cross country Heps, placing 52nd in 22:11.7. Tozser pushed hard in the middle 2K and ultimately finished 55th in 22:18.9. Freshman Delphi Cleaveland had a good race in her first career Heps, placing 60th in 22:30.9. Junior Christine Driscoll also had a good Heps debut, placing 75th in 22:47.0 and senior Dale Kinney gave great effort and was 90th in 23:49.8.
NCAA Northeast Regional Champinships: The #23 ranked Cornell women's cross country team continued their strong late-season surge with their best performance of the fall to produce an outstanding fourth place finish at the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships at Van Cortlandt Park on Friday. The Big Red was led by its senior co-captains, Rachel Sorna and Emmy Shearer, who came through with big-time top 10 individual CUXC at Van Cortlandt Park finishes as both earned All-Region honors for the second straight year. Also for the second straight year, Cornell is poised for a trip to the NCAA Championships as a team. The NCAA committee will announce the field of 31 on Saturday afternoon and based on its outstanding regular season record, Cornell is expected to be among the at-large teams selected. I will be sure to send out an e-mail once the field is officially announced!
Tallying 154 points, the Big Red had all five scorers in the top 50 (and all seven runners in the top 90) of the 254 woman field to finish fourth in the field of 37 teams, behind only #2 ranked Providence (44), #12 Dartmouth (84), #19 Syracuse (135) and ahead of #34 Boston College #27 Harvard (211) and #41 Columbia (228), among others. Senior co-captains Rachel Sorna and Emmy Shearer led the Big Red charge from the gun, as both positioned themselves in the lead pack of 15 by the mile. The 6K course at Van Cortlandt was a new one and the first 4K was completely flat, with two loops on the main playing fields of the park. The 3K split for the lead group was remarkably fast (9:41) and both Sorna and Shearer were up for the task. Not far behind, fellow seniors Devin McMahon and Liz Simpson were running very well in the race's top 40, with McMahon going through 3K in 10:01 and Simpson in 10:05 (a lifetime PR for the distance!). A trio of sophomores were within fifteen seconds of Simpson and McMahon to round out the scoring five: Claire DeVoe, Caroline Kellner and Kristen Niedrach.
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After 4K, the course finally entered the hillier section of the park. Although the infamous "Back Hills" were never in play, the course got significantly harder in the last mile as the field raced up "Freshman Hill" before looping back onto the main fields. Sorna raced hard all the way through for a terrific 8th place finish in a seasonal best of 20:19.9. Only three seconds behind was Shearer, who closed very well for a lifetime PR of 20:22.7 in ninth. These were career best finishes for this outstanding senior duo at this meet as they joined Kate Boyles '05, Toni-Lynn Salucci '07 and Katie Kellner '13 as the only Cornellians in the past 15 years to finish in the top 10 at the Northeast Regional championships.
McMahon continued her strong ascent in the last half of the season and finished 41st in 21:19.0. Simpson was not far behind, performing great in her first ever race at the Regional Championships, crossing the line 46th in 21:22.4. Not far behind was Kellner, who moved up very well throughout the race. In only her third race of the season after injury kept her on the sidelines in September and most of October, Kellner finished 50th in 21:29.0. DeVoe held on very well after her assertive start, placing 79th in 22:02.8 and Niedrach was 86th in 22:07.3. Overall, the Big Red again cracked a 21:00 average over 6K.
NCAA Championships: On a very cold and windy Saturday afternoon at a very muddy Lavern Gibson Cross Country Course in Terre Haute, IN, the Cornell women's cross country team put together seven strong competitive efforts to place 23rd at the NCAA Division I Women's Cross Country Championships Led by senior co-captain Rachel Sorna's outstanding 14th place All-American finish (the best individual result at the NCAA cross country meet by a Cornellian in over 20 years), the Big Red tallied 570 points. Ranked 24th in the nation coming into the meet, Cornell exceeded expectations even without the services of standout senior co-captain Emmy Shearer, who was pursuing a fantastic opportunity in New York City as a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship! As they have all season, the Big Red found contributions from many people to produce a gritty effort on a day in which running conditions were far form ideal.
At race time, winds of nearly 20 miles per hour put the wind chill at a challenging 19 degrees and after a week CUXC in Terre Haute, IN of steady rain that came after severe storms ripped the midwest last weekend, the course was also extremely muddy, with standing water throughout and the footing barely run-able in some spots. Breaking out the long spikes that helped Cornell win the 2011 cross country Heps in the snow at Princeton, the Cornell women were not only prepared, but determined and undaunted by the conditions they faced.
Cornell followed the lead of Rachel Sorna every step of the way. Rachel was out very well, and
24 put herself in the front of the chase pack by 2K, running along-side Ivy compatriot Abbey D'Agostino of Dartmouth, who went on to catch early leader Kate Avery of Iona to claim the individual title. Rachel's 14th place finish in 20:26.5 over 6K was a culmination of a season's worth of racing breakthroughs as Rachel competed with great composure and toughness and demonstrated real savvy in her ability to navigate the rigors of racing at the front-end of the main pack at the NCAA Championships. She became the first Cornellian to finish in the top 15 at the NCAA women's cross country championships since Hall of Famer Pam Hunt '94 placed twelfth in 1992. Sorna earned her second straight cross country All-American award and her fourth career All American award including indoor and outdoor track.
The Big Red's effort was tough and fearless across the board. Competing in her first NCAA meet, senior Liz Simpson handled the muddy course extremely well and placed 127th in 21:29.4 to conclude a truly special senior year that included a second team All-Ivy honor at the Heps earlier this month. Not far behind was senior Devin McMahon who was running in the race's top 100 before losing one of her contact lenses in the heavy wind. Despite not being able to see (a real disadvantage given the tricky conditions and footing on the course), Devin closed out her outstanding Cornell cross country career with another tough and relentless effort, placing 164th in 21:45.4. Coming on strong right behind Devin was sophomore Claire Devoe who impressed with a strong finish, passing 15 people in the final 2K. The native Oregonian handled the mud very well, placing 198th in 22:02.4. Classmate Caroline Kellner moved up the best of the entire Cornell line-up (passing 17 people in the final 2K) and came through again for Cornell with a 206th place run of 22:08.1 to close out the team scoring. Unable to run from mid-August until the middle of October because of injury, Caroline trained diligently all fall in the pool, intent on finding a way to come back and help the team and she provided a significant boost for the Big Red in the homestretch of the season. Sophomore Corey Dowe did a great job taking advantage of the NCAA opportunity, moving up very well over the last mile to place 223rd in 22:20.6. And sophomore Kristen Niedrach again put herself in position to score for Cornell, running with Kellner for much of the race, and produced a very good race at her first NCAA meet, placing 229th in 22:23.6.
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Meet the Captains
This year’s senior class is one of the best and most diverse groups Cornell has season in years, and its leaders are no exception. The men’s and women’s track and field captains are creative, interesting, and funny people in addition to being great students and athletes. Enjoy learning what makes them tick, what makes them special, and what motivates them as you meet the captains!
Ryan Woolley (long sprints and intermediate hurdles)
If you didn't have a track meet, how would you spend your ideal Saturday?
My ideal Saturday besides being at a track meet would be spent outdoors exploring somewhere I’ve never been.
What has been your favorite competition moment so far at Cornell?
My favorite competition moment would probably be at last year’s indoor HEPS during the 4x4. It was kind of bittersweet because we knew that we weren’t going to win the meet even if we won the race, but we all wanted go out with a bang and win the 4x400. The relays are always so exciting because they're the last race of the meet and there is just so much energy from everyone.
If you could pick an event that’s not your own to compete and excel in, which would you pick and why?
I would choose the high jump. It’s such a unique event and requires so much technique I think it would be pretty awesome to know how to manipulate my body in just the right way to get over the bar. Plus the high jump is one of my favorite events to watch and it amazes me how it all happens so fast.
400 or 400 hurdles? If you had to pick just one, which would it be?
400 hurdles. Hands down. It’s the best race on the track. I love the hurdles. I love the distraction they bring to the 400 and the challenge.
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What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced since coming to Cornell, both on and off the track?
The biggest challenge I’ve faced on the track is staying healthy, but I’ve managed to avoid major setbacks from getting sick or injured which has been lucky. Off the track my biggest challenge has been staying motivated to figure out what I want to do with my life. I still haven’t figured out all the details but my experiences at Cornell have definitely helped me figure what I don’t want to do and helped me solidify goals for the future.
If you could live anywhere in the world after college, where would it be?
Right after college I want to live in a city, near the ocean, and somewhere warm. So, basically the opposite of Ithaca, NY. I’d choose Sydney, Australia if it weren’t so far away from home and my family. I’ve never been to San Francisco, but California is pretty awesome so if I could have a nice place right on the water that would be ideal.
Hercules Stancil (long jump)
Make a case for why jumping is the coolest track event!
I’d say long-jumping is the coolest event because in order to be good at it you must have great speed, but also tremendous explosion and leaping ability. I feel like it requires the most athleticism of all events.
If you could pick an event that’s not your own to compete and excel in, which would you pick and why?
I would pick the 400 hurdles because it requires great levels of speed, sprint endurance, hurdling ability, and consistency in order to excel at a high level.
If you had to eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
I guess I’d have to go for baked chicken since it is a healthier source of protein. I must say that if I had to choose I drink to have for the rest of my life it would be lemon sweet tea, hands down.
Which songs would you put on your pump-up playlist?
I would have to go with “More Bounce to the Ounce” by Zapp and Roger, “Atomic Dog” by George Clinton, and “Midas Touch” by Midnight Star. Funk always gets me in the right mindset to jump.
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What’s one thing you would tell your freshman self on the first day of orientation three years ago?
I’d have to tell myself to go and get a warmer coat ASAP. It was so uncomfortable wearing all of those layers all of the time.
What has been your favorite competition moment so far at Cornell?
My favorite competition moment was during Outdoor HEPS my sophomore year. I had pulled my groin after the third jump, but I was still able to score with my last jump. It showed me how deep we can dig if we really want it.
What’s one thing you would tell your freshman self on the first day of orientation three years ago?
I’d have to tell myself to go and get a warmer coat ASAP. It was so uncomfortable wearing all of those layers all of the time.
Rachel Sorna (distance and steeplechase)
What drew you to the steeplechase?
I like that steeplechase favors strength over raw speed. Sure, being fast doesn't hurt, but being physically and mentally tough can mean a lot more in a steeple than it might in another event. Aside from that though, it's just fun. Describing it to people who have never watched it is always great. "And then, we jump over a 12-foot water pit... sometimes there's alligators in the water too..."
Which three songs would you put on your pump-up playlist?
My pump-up playlist is ever-evolving, but currently I'd say my top 3 songs are: “One Thing,” by One Direction, “Treasure,” by Bruno Mars, and “Jai Ho,” by The Pussycat Dolls. My pump-up songs need to be ones that I can dance around like a fool to before the race.
What has been your favorite competition moment so far at Cornell?
Crossing the finish line of the 3000m at the 2013 Outdoor Heps. It was the third and final race of the insane 10k, steeple, 3k triple I did. 40 laps, 10 miles, in 23 hours. I just collapsed on the ground. I was crying and laughing at the same time. I was delirious. I was the most exhausted I've ever been in my entire life, but it was absolutely worth it.
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What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?
My guilty pleasure is dark chocolate. I eat a little bit everyday. It's just delicious. And it's infinitely better than milk chocolate. On days where I don't have any because I ran out or I forgot to bring some to a meet, I feel empty inside.
What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced since coming to Cornell, both on and off the track?
The biggest challenge I've faced since coming to Cornell has been maintaining a balance between all the different parts of my life. Between being an engineer and a member of a nationally-competitive athletic program – let alone a college student who needs to have a little fun once in a while – it sometimes seems as if they aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done. Learning how to balance everything has definitely been difficult, but I feel like its helped me grow as a student, an athlete, and a person.
You famously race with shoelaces in your hair. What’s their significance?
Ah yes, my shoelaces. So I like the idea of wearing something in my hair, but I'm not really a bows-and-ribbons kind of girl. My sophomore year, I randomly found them in a box under my bed one day and just decided to wear them in my hair in my next race. I've worn them every race since then. My parents say they make it easier to spot me in big races, so that's a plus.
Bruno Hortelano-Roig (sprints)
What’s one thing you would tell your freshman self on the first day of orientation three years ago?
I would tell young Bruno to [learn to] time-manage ASAP. I could have had a lot more success in my early years if I had learned to time manage the way I do now. I would have also told myself not to take so much ibuprofen. Because of shin splits I ended up taking about 600mg daily for 10 months, which culminated in a huge stress fracture that took me 8 months to come back from.
If you could pick an event that’s not your own to compete and excel in, which would you pick and why?
I wish I could pole vault because it looks so awesome. I give vaulters a lot of credit because it takes insane spatial awareness and perfected technique, and I'm sure flying through the air the way they do feels badass.
Are you a good dancer?
No, I'm a terrible dancer. Terrible. Sometimes I try but only because I just don't care enough. 29
You dyed your hair this summer for the World Championships. Any plans for future bold hairstyle choices?
I'm not sure if I'll be doing that again. This past summer I made the decision rather spontaneously, so I don't think I would ever be planning something like that. But if it happens, it happens. I think about how I'll perform on the track, so the way I look is never an issue for me.
What has been your favorite competition moment so far at Cornell?
The greatest moment in my collegiate life was winning the Indoor HEPS at Harvard in 2013. The Men's team won the meet over Princeton by one single point, so the meet wasn't decided until the very last race was finished. It was a very emotional championships and I believe the narrow margin of victory displays beautifully the collective effort that was required by every Cornell athlete. Even the support from friends, alumni, and parents was spectacular and likely pushed our athletes to their best.
What surprised you most about being on the team at Cornell?
I've been on many teams in my time, including a national team, but never have I felt the closeness of a team like Cornell. This is a family more than a team, and these are my friends more than my teammates. I don't think you'll find a closer team in many places throughout the nation, even in other sports. I know for a fact other teams look at us and are inspired by the way we support each other in this very individual sport. We are capable of turning this sport into a team sport, somehow.
Emmy Shearer (mid-distance)
What has been your favorite competition moment so far at Cornell?
I have two - the first is definitely breaking the 3000m school record at Penn Relays my sophomore year. But winning the cross country Heps in the snow in 2011 always has to be brought up when we're talking about great competition moments.
What’s one thing you would tell your freshman self on the first day of orientation three years ago?
Don't get Achilles tendonitis freshman year! Just kidding. I honestly probably would just say have fun - I don't think I have any regrets at Cornell.
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How does Ithaca's weather compare to California's? Was that a tough adjustment?
The weather change was a bit of a shock at first, but I actually love bundling up and running in the snow. The worst is running in icy rain. I'm not sure if I'll ever like that.
What is one goal you have for the upcoming season?
I want to break the indoor mile record and reclaim my outdoor 3000m record. As a team, obviously I'm looking for two more Heps titles before I go.
You balance all sorts of crazy athletic, academic, and extracurricular commitments. How do you manage it all?
[Laughs] thank you. Honestly, it sounds simple but it's true: I just love everything I do. I have a pretty full schedule, but if you genuinely are passionate about what you do it will never feel (too much) like hard work. I also have tried to perfect multitasking - my favorite is the triple combination of ice bathing while eating dinner and reading a textbook.
Will Weinlandt (mid-distance)
Balancing life as a runner and as an engineer is really tough – what’s the key to success?
Bringing my calculator and textbook on my long runs raises productivity. And sleep… 9 to 11 hours a night is vital. Anything less and my schoolwork falls apart.
What has been your favorite competition moment so far at Cornell?
Watching the end of the 4x400m relay at the indoor Heps last year and storming the infield. Then David Kim and I realized that we had finally won our first title since getting to Cornell. We may or may not have cried. That entire Sunday was surreal.
You're known as quite the stylish guy-- how would you describe your unique fashion sense?
Someone's gotta look classy. Also, what shows school spirit better than red pants? Nothing. That's what.
What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced since coming to Cornell, both on and off the track?
Off the track - course enroll. It's hands down more stressful than prelims, projects, and finals week combined. On the track - I was so nervous freshman
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year that all I ate before indoor Heps was a single chocolate-chip mini-muffin. I almost passed out before my race, which was in the late afternoon. It was also the first time I had doubled (or tripled) in a weekend. Everything after that weekend seemed much easier.
Who is your athletic role model?
Nick Symmonds – he's a monster on the track, but more importantly he seems genuine and uses his fame to support causes he believes in. In my book, he's someone you just have to root for.
If you could pick an event that’s not your own to compete and excel in, which would you pick and why?
I'd have to choose the 400mH. It's a great mix of strength, speed, and endurance. And with my coordination, tons of my close friends would be filming it and I could become a YouTube star overnight.
OT Airewele (sprints)
You are one of the more colorful personalities on the team. What would you say is the key to living life like OT?
You know that show "In Living Color?” I'd like to think I live my life by that phrase. Vividly. In moments of hard times, I always ask myself, "What would Beyonce do?" That usually helps things a lot. But in reality, I think it's because I've learned to not major on the minor things in life. I hear people fussing and yakking about the most nonsensical things, and I always want to tell them to chill out. Like eat some ice cream, put on some sweatpants, chill out. Oh and I eat a lot of candy. That's probably the real reason why I have such a colorful personalities, it's just the excessive amount of sugar coursing through my body. To tell the truth, I actually have a shipment of 5lbs of gummy mini- frogs coming in today. I make no apologies.
What’s one thing you would tell your freshman self on the first day of orientation three years ago?
Stop fooling yourself and start stockpiling your sweats and leggings collections. You don't even like jeans. Oh, and try to steal a waffle machine from RPCC. It will come in handy.
Which songs would you put on your pump-up playlist?
“Shake it Out (Benny Benassi Extended Remix),” by Florence + The Machine, “You Make My
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Dreams Come True / I Can't Get Enough,” the Glee mashup (whatever, I make no apologies), “Hard in Da Paint (Bellizio Remix -- Crizly Edit),” by Waka Flocka Flame, and “I Can Go the Distance” from the Hercules soundtrack (once again I make no apologies).
What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced since coming to Cornell, both on and off the track?
Off the track I would say one of my biggest challenges is devoting proper attention to all the extracurricular activities I’ve somehow immersed myself in. Oh, that and writing cover letters. Let me state it now: cover letters are the bane of my existence. I wish you could do cover videos. I’d ace. I would probably just make cover videos for fun to be realistic.
My biggest challenges on the track? Probably Monday workouts. Yep, definitely Monday workouts.
Best and worst style choices you've seen on Cornell's campus this year?
Worst style choices? Anyone that wears heels on campus (HOC). Sorry, but you're dumb. This is not the Midwest, Cornell is either a steep hike up or straight downhill. There's no room for HOCs here. And besides who are you trying to impress? The kid next to in lecture that's wearing the same pajamas he slept in? Yeahm I bet he's thoroughly impressed by your suede heels.
Second worst style choices? Anything in Duffield Hall after 10pm. If you've ever even thought about buying a Vogue or GQ magazine, you will be sorely offended by the things you see in the building. I guess they get a little slack because they're engineers, but I don't know how much trust I can put into someone that thinks it's okay to wear a fedora outside of a 1920's costume party.
But the actually the worst style choice I've seen, is a girl who was using two neon blankets as a jacket and then a long fleece skirt. I'm not even sure how to describe what I saw. It wasn't right, it just wasn't right.
As for the best style choices? Anything by Coach Durant. That's an obvious one.
Stephen Mozia (throws)
If you could pick an event that’s not your own to compete and excel in, which would you pick and why?
I would probably pick long jump. I'm decently fast and pretty powerful. Plus doing it right must feel great. Also I’ve always felt like the field events were cooler. 33
Which three songs would you put on your pump-up playlist?
“Sunrise,” by Childish Gambino, “Who Gon’ Stop Me,” by Kanye West, and “Dollar and a Dream 3,” by J. Cole
What has been your favorite competition moment so far at Cornell?
Freshman year at Heps when I threw my outdoor PR in shotput and won my first Heps championship. It was like I was in a movie.
What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced since coming to Cornell, both on and off the track?
My brother passing away when I was freshman. It really made me into the man I am today.
What is one goal you have for the upcoming season?
Win an NCAA championship.
If you could live anywhere in the world after college, where would it be?
If I was raising a family, probably New Jersey. I always love my home state. But if it were just for fun, I'd live in Bermuda or Fiji. Gotta love the pink sand.
Whom do you consider your athletic role model?
I would have to say Michael Jordan. The fact that he had that much confidence in himself is very admirable.
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The Freshman Perspective Tobenna Attah ‘17
I had no idea what to expect from my track team coming to Cornell for my freshmen year. I was anxious, excited, nervous, and pumped all at once to meet a pool of athletes who appreciate track & field as much as I do. I can say now that I have adjusted quite nicely to my team. I wouldn't say we are your average team though; there are qualities this team has that makes each and every single one of us irreplaceable.
The quality I like most so far about this team is the unique camaraderie we are developing. Every person on the team has their own story and watching these stories unravel as I spend so much time with them in and out of practice is amazing. I still can’t believe I was able to leave all my friends and family in Texas (Go Dallas Cowboys; America’s Team) and arrive in an environment that already felt like home. The upperclassmen are a strong core of talented, hilarious people I can look up too while my class is among top five recruiting classes in the nation! It’s great to be a part of such a confident team that will stop at nothing to make the best of this program.
I haven’t spent much time here at Cornell yet, but I can already tell that these next four years will be an experience I will never forget. It’s a shame I won’t be able to share all four years with the loony upperclassmen on the team, but every year will be cherished, and I will learn a lot from them. It’s going to be awesome making my parents (I love you mommy and daddy!), brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, enemies, rivals, and Coach Taylor proud here at Cornell!
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The Freshman Perspective Maya Golliday ‘17
Making the transfer from high school athletics to Division 1 college athletics initially was frightening. My biggest concern was that I would not be able to make it through the workouts. In high school the hardest workouts were a couple 200m sprints and then you were done. Here, that is basically a warmup. From the dreaded stadiums workouts over at Schoellkopf Field, to sprinting up Ithaca’s infamous hills, I think I can speak for all of us freshman when I say we quickly became acquainted with the reality of D1 athletics. It is no joke! The cool thing though is I never felt like a workout was impossible. The workouts are extremely hard don’t get me wrong, but I am always able to get through them because of the team. During the first few weeks of workouts, there were multiple times where I wanted to take a break to catch my breath, but nope, the team pushed me to keep going. This team has honestly pushed me to levels I didn’t even know I could reach. It is amazing the things you can accomplish when you have a team behind you who is so encouraging and supportive.
Another thing I love about the team is the passion and camaraderie. Everyone wants to be here, everyone wants to improve, and everyone wants each other to achieve their absolute best. There is never a day that goes by where it is quiet in the weight room or quiet on the track during practice. Every single day of practice the energy is live. Everyone is always cheering each other on to finish that last set of reps or that last lap of a workout. In high school the atmosphere is usually not like this, but here at Cornell everyone is so passionate about what they do that this type of atmosphere is inevitable. On top of that, everyone here is extremely talented. Literally everyone on the team is either a state/conference champ, school record holder, and some people are even national elite. It’s truly is an honor to be able to practice with these girls and guys everyday!
The first meet is around the corner and I am so excited to see what we all can do. We’ve already improved so much over such a short period time, I can’t even imagine what we will accomplish as a team over the course of my next four years! It’s going to be a great ride and I wouldn’t wish to experience it with any other group of people!
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The Senior Perspective Bruno Hortelano-Roig
Was the progression of personal, Cornell, and national records broken at venues like the European Under 23 Championships, Spanish National Championships, and IAAF World Championships something that you had anticipated? Was your training tailored throughout the year so you would peak at those times?
The season certainly is set up with a strategy in mind, and I expected to peak at those major championships, also including the NCAAs. I did this by loading up weeks prior to these meets and tapering for one to two weeks, even three for the World Championships. This tapering phase allows for the central nervous system to recover, giving me the peak that I want. However, preparation is only half of it. I was able to rise to the occasion when it mattered most because of the mental training that allowed me to deal with ridiculous amounts of pressure. Instead of shrinking at the fear of
pressure, I was successful in bringing out the best in myself when it came down to it. I tend to do my best at major championships so I guess you could say I had anticipated these results.
How does the environment of the competition change between the European Under 23 Championships in Finland and IAAF World Championships in Moscow? Does the presence of veteran, professional athletes dramatically increase the intensity of the meet?
At the European U23 Champs there was some quality athletes, like Adam Gemili who finished this season 5th in the world with a 19.98. I definitely cannot say that the quality was poor, and the meet was intense. But at the same time there was more of an amateur air about the event than the World Champs. In Moscow, everything was professional; everything was timed to the minute. And the competition was fierce. The Finnish stadium didn't fill, but there were many thousands of spectators in Moscow that forced you to realize that you were among the very best runners in the world. Walking out into the Russian stadium was surreal, being surrounded by a deafening roar from the crowd was probably one of my most impacting memories.
At the Diamond League Stockholm meet, did you rehearse your pre-race camera antics? Further, is there an unwritten rule about not smiling?
There are no rules about not smiling, but for the most part people are either too nervous or too focused to smile. I guess Bolt doesn't need to stay serious, or maybe he finds relaxation in the things he does pre-race. But no, I didn't rehearse my pre-race routine. It's something I've picked up over time and I do my thing the same way every time there are people that I care about
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What was it like to train in Spain this summer and to have spent so much time internationally?
I've been doing track for almost 14 years and I didn't think as a kid that I would be representing my country and racing against the best athletes the world can offer. As you can imagine this has made the entire experience very special for me. I've made sure to take everything in, to learn from everybody, and to appreciate the places I visit. Spain is great, I love training there, and every country that I've visited has its own thing to offer.
Did you live with other athletes or a family?
When I go to Spain over the summers, I stay in an Olympic preparation residence, along with a ton of other Olympic athletes. They host many athletes from a huge variety of sports, from track to gymnastics, weightlifting to figure skating, field hockey to archery. It's great because I get to meet a lot of people with many different perspectives, which allows for significant personal growth.
My Spanish class has taught me that octopus is a traditional dish in parts of Spain. Did you eat octopus while training? If applicable, do you think the octopus was a determining factor in your success?
I have eaten octopus and I do like the Spanish octopus dishes. But while I trained I would eat a strict regimen of balanced nutrition, so I didn't get so much say in what I ate. Even so, I don't think you could ever justify success by one magic formula. However, there is a secret to success which I've recently learned, but it's not this. It's a lot simpler than you would think. You need to believe you can do something to the point where nobody can convince you otherwise, not even yourself. And then you need to work so hard that there is nothing more that you could do to succeed. That's it.
Along with completing your degree, I know the 2016 Olympics in Rio are a goal. What do you plan to do during the interim? How and where will you continue to train? Beyond track what do you aspire to accomplish in this time?
I will definitely continue to train until Rio 2016. I've set the Olympics as my final destination, and am going to work hard to achieve my dream. I'm not sure where I'll be yet, but as long as I stay true to my morals I'll get to Rio. Aside from track I hope to further develop my professional life, never ceasing to learn new things. I have many interests and I hope to be doing something that I find fulfilling.
Do you feel as though Cornell, unlike some institutions, equally recognizes both athletic and academic success? Are you ever bothered that a fast 4x400 split may be publicized, but an A on a prelim during outdoor season goes largely unnoticed?
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It's great to know what awesome athletes are representing us, and what incredible things some people are doing, but I don't think media and public recognition should determine an athlete's motivation for success. In a similar way, grades are personal and relative to each individual, so I don't think publicity would necessarily change the way people perform. I'm not saying Cornell shouldn't recognize grades more than they do (Dean's List, etc), just that I don't find motivation in having the world know about my accomplishments. This leads to something that's been on my mind, however. Cornell athletes are incredibly hard workers, directly dedicating 30+ hour weeks to a job they get no money for doing. Not only that, but I doubt many students understand what it means to have to start studying at 9pm, absolutely dead from exhaustion, and having to be asleep by midnight so as to get a full night's rest for recovery. These extra hours of lost productivity are indirect hours of dedication to sport, and are not issues non-athletes face. I don't think athletes at Cornell get the recognition they deserve, as I've known many incredible athletes who also were able to achieve great GPAs.
(L to R) Ryan Hynes ’16, Justin McCollin ’14, Chris Bain ’14, Bruno Hortelano-Roig ’14, Jedidiah Adarquah-Yiadom ’13, Kinsley Ojukwu ‘14
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The Alumni Perspective Katie Kellner
Cornell grad Katie Kellner ‘13 saw great success during her time at Cornell. A two time All-American, Katie led Cornell to new heights during Cross Country and on the track. During her stellar senior year Katie claimed the women’s Heps title in Cross Country and in the 10K during the outdoor season. A team captain, Katie proved instrumental in leading the women’s cross country team to a team title at the Heps, and to a 13th place finish at Nationals in 2012. After graduating from Cornell last spring, Katie has joined the Hansons-Brooks Project in Rochester Hills, Michigan. Hansons-Brooks, most known for their work with 2012 Olympian Desiree Davila, focuses primarily on longer events, like the 10K and the Marathon. Katie recently competed for the US in Japan as part of a relay.
Could you describe your recent trip to Japan? What was it like to put on a team USA singlet for the first time?
My experience in Japan was incredible. I was honored to be selected on a USA team and to be able to race in a USA uniform. I competed in the Chiba Ekiden. It is a relay race that totals a marathon distance. Ekidens are really popular in Japan and Japanese athletes have an Ekiden season rather than a cross country season. The legs of this particular Ekiden were 5K, 5K, 10K, 5K, 10K, 7.2K alternating male and female. I ran the first female leg, which was a 5K. The actual race was really, really fun. We had a sash that we wore while we ran and had to pass from one person to another. I got the sash in 10th place. Australia immediately passed me, but soon enough I passed her back. France and Ukraine were in the distance and I just kept myself focused on them. About halfway through my race, I passed the two of them. The next people I could see were New Zealand and Canada. They were very far ahead though. I tried to close the distance, but was basically just running by myself. Nonetheless, there were huge crowds the whole way and it was really exciting. I passed on the sash in 8th place and ran 16:22. Once we finished, we were immediately bussed to the stadium where the race finished. No time to cool down!! At the stadium, so many Japanese children wanted my autograph. They really loved the Americans. I was signing race bibs, t-shirts, jackets, and taking pictures with them. Little did they know that I was just as excited to have their attention as they were to have my attention. The whole thing was really cool! The USA team ended up finishing in 5th place!
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When did Hanson Brooks first approach you about joining the project?
Hansons-Brooks approached me about joining their team around February of 2013. At this point, I had already visited some other training groups and I had been talking extensively with Artie about my running future. Hansons-Brooks sent an email to Artie inquiring about my interest in post-collegiate running. Prior to receiving this email, I had done some research on the Hanson- Brooks Distance Project because I knew they were a prestigious distance program and a team that I would be interested in at some point in my future. I was excited that they were contacting in me while I was still in college and I told Artie to email them back and tell them that I would love to hear more about their program. In early April, I took a visit to Hansons and learned a lot about the training environment. The visit also gave the coaches an opportunity to see if I would be a good fit for their team and if they wanted to offer me a spot. A few weeks after the visit, I got a phone call from Keith Hanson officially offering to coach me. Knowing how good of an opportunity this was, I accepted the position. How has the transition from college to professional running gone so far? The transition from college to professional running has gone very smoothly. Fortunately, I joined the team with two other runners that I competed against while running for Cornell- Corey Conner and Shauna McNiff. We were able to adjust together which was really helpful. When I first arrived in Michigan, I wasn’t given a training schedule and was told to do whatever I was used to. This allowed me to adjust to my new house and teammates before changing around my training. After about two weeks, I was given a training schedule and started doing workouts. I have begun to incorporate doubles into my schedule and have increased my mileage. Luckily, I have remained healthy and felt strong during these changes. What has been the biggest adjustment for you? One of the biggest adjustments for me is racing less frequently. In college, a runner typically races every weekend. In the professional world, a runner selects much fewer races and spreads them out over the course of the season. I love to race and I sometimes feel like I “forget” how to race from competing less frequently. I have raced three times since joining Hansons at the end of August and I have a fourth race planned for mid-December. Even though there are fewer races then in college, each racing experience has been absolutely incredible. Spreading out my races has also allowed me to get in solid weeks of consistent training, which I am sure will benefit me. What do you miss most about Cornell? This is an easy question- my teammates and the coaching staff. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to spend my four years with. I think about you guys all the time and follow your seasons as closely as possible. What was your favorite collegiate race? Now this is a much harder question. There were so many amazing experiences while I was competing for Cornell. There are three races that really stand out to me. First, was the snowy Cross Country Heps in 2011. I have won a few individual Heps titles, but none of these came close to the excitement I felt when we won that meet as a team. It was epic. The second race would have to be Cross Country NCAAs in 2012. The Cornell Athletic Department, as well as Artie, did so much to make that a fun and memorable trip for us. Lastly, was outdoor track Heps 41 this past year. Surprising the Ivy League by having both Rachel and I run distance triples was just awesome. There are a lot of talented runners involved with Hanson Brooks, have you enjoyed getting to know your new teammates? How has your training changed? I love all my new teammates and I am honored to be able to train with such accomplished runners. I am trying to learn as much as I can from them and absorb all their training advice and experiences. There have been a few major changes in my training. First, since we aren’t bound to a school/work week, we train on a nine day cycle instead of the typical seven day cycle. We usually have a workout followed by two regular/recovery days. The second major change in my training is volume. I typically run twice a day on my easy days which has really boosted my mileage. My workouts are also much more distance based. We do a lot of cutdown runs where each mile gets progressively faster. Including the warm-up and cool-down, these workouts can easily add up to 12-14 miles on the day. Reeses pieces or Reeses cups? Reeses cups, no question about it. From Princeton, to Ithaca, to Rochester, what do you think has been the most important element to your success? What advice would you give to incoming Cornell freshmen? The mostly important element to my success is support from family and friends. There is no way I would be running today if it weren’t for the help and encouragement from all those around me. My family has supported me every step of the way- from watching my races to encouraging me to take a post- collegiate path different from most Cornell students. I cannot thank them enough. My teammates at Cornell were also essential to my success. They made practice fun and I looked forward to training every day mostly because I could see everyone. Lastly, my coaches have been essential to my success. I am very fortunate to have had both amazing high school and college coaches. While at Cornell, Artie was there for me both on and off the track. He cared about my running and well-being just about as much as I did. Thank you to everyone who have allowed to me live my dreams! My advice to Cornell freshman is to have fun!!!! While it is important to be serious about training, you are never going to compete well if you aren’t enjoying every step of the process. Races should not be stressful situations where everything is on the line. Races are exciting opportunities to see how much you have progressed! Take the stress out of training and racing. Work hard and have fun every day!
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2014 Men’s Indoor Heps
For the second year in a row, the Big Red men are indoor Heps Champs! Competing at Dartmouth’s Leverone Fieldhouse, #13 nationally- ranked Cornell defeated Princeton 145-117 as Harvard finished 3rd with 95 points. Seniors Bruno Hortelano-Roig and Stephen Mozia were named meet MVPs on the track and in the field, respectively. Over the course of the Big Red storm, the team won 7 events, recorded 2 runner-up finishes, and set 2 all- time Ivy League records. In the winning effort, 25 men contributed to the scoring column, a true team effort!
Senior Bruno Hortelano-Roig was the meet MVP on the track as he won the 60 meters in 6.74 after setting the All-time Ivy record in the prelims at 6.69. Senior Justin McCollin was 5th in the 60 in 6.97 (6.91 prelims) and sophomore Ryan Hynes was 7th in 7.01 (6.99 prelims). Senior Kinsley Ojukwu placed 9th in the prelims at 7.02. Continuing his dominance at 400, Bruno won the final in 47.36 by over a second as Larry Gibson was 3rd at 48.84. In the 400 prelims, Bruno ran 47.04 (currently #19 in the country) to set a new school record, Gibson ran 49.08, and freshman Jordan Sherwood was 13th in 50.68. Sophomore Max Hairston blew through the competition in the 60 hurdles, leading the prelims at 8.02 and winning in a meet record 7.90 (#2 all-time at Cornell), tying Cornellian Saidu Ezike’s meet record from 2008. Wynn Curtis placed 6th in 8.39 (8.28 prelims, #10 all-time in school history) as freshman Austin Jamerson was 8th in 8.95 (8.29 prelims). Jordan Sherwood was 11th in the prelims at 8.47.
Sophomore Max Hairston (1:04.20) and junior Cisco Olloqui (1:04.80) finished 3rd and 4th respectively in the 500. Freshman Wynn Curtis was 9th in the prelims at 1:06.14 as Hairston and Olloqui ran 1:04.84 and 1:04.97, respectively.
Senior Will “Big Bird” Weinlandt defended his 800 meter title from last winter with a very fast 1:50.47 (currently 22nd in the country) after also leading the field through the prelims at 1:52.05. Junior Hong Cho placed 4th in 1:52.77 (1:53.03 in prelims). In the 1000, freshman Mark Tedder just missed the final, placing 9th in the prelims at 2:29.55.
The relays provided tremendous excitement. In the DMR, freshmen James Gowans (2:59.6), Cisco Olloqui (48.8), Mark Tedder (1:55.8), and sophomore Ben Rainero (4:06.0) ran 9:50.24 to place 4th, #5 in school history. The 4x8 quartet of senior Eric Bice (1:55.1), sophomore Matt Crawford (1:54.8), Hong Cho (1:54.9) and Will Weinlandt (1:55.4) placed 5th in 7:40.25. The
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4x400 relay of Larry Gibson (48.1), Kinsley Ojuwku (48.6), Max Hairston (49.8), and Bruno Hortelano (46.3) crossed the finish line first in 3:13 and 4 seconds ahead of Princeton, but the Big Red was disqualified on a very controversial ruling.
Field MVP Stephen Mozia put on an absolute clinic in the shot put. On his fourth throw, Stephen broke Olympic Gold medalist Adam Nelson’s meet record of 19.30 meters by throwing 20.30m (66’7) before breaking the all-time Ivy record on his 5th throw (20.59m) and then breaking it again on his final throw with a 20.79m heave (68’2.5”)! Sophomore Praduman Singh was 10th in 52’2.75”. In the weight throw, sophomore Bryan Rhodes scored a big win at 63’4” as Mozia doubled back in 9th at 56’6”.
In the heptathlon, senior Mike Rabbitt and Austin Jamerson finished 3rd (5,136 points) and 5th (5,078 points), respectively. Rabbit’s performances: (60m 7.04, LJ 23’0.5”, SP 33’4.75”, 6’4.75”, 60h 8.71, PV 13’1.5”, 1000m 2:49.78). Jamerson’s performances: (60m 7.39, LJ 22’2.5”, SP 35’4”, 6’8.25”, 60h 8.39, PV 13’1.5”, 1000m 2:57.04). Both men set personal bests to improve upon their own #5 and #6 respective all-time performances as Jamerson broke his own freshman record.
In Saturday’s long jump, senior Steven Bell led the Max Hairston ‘16 way in 3rd at 23’3.5” and was followed by Mike Rabbitt in 5th at 23’0”, senior Montez Blair (6th, 22’11.75”), Austin Jamerson (8th, 22’4.5”), and freshman Weston Northrop (11th, 21’0.75”). In Sunday’s triple jump, senior Dan Scott was 5th at 48’7.5” and freshman Robert Plummer earned his sash in 6th place at 48’7.25” as Steven Bell was 9th in 47’1.75”.
Grant Sisserson broke his own freshman record (again!) at 16’8.75” to move to #2 all-time at Cornell as he was runner-up in the pole vault. Senior Peter Roach was 3rd at 16’0.75” and junior Steven Pawlak was 7th at 15’5”. Montez Blair won the high jump at 6’11.5” on only his second attempt in the competition as senior Tommy Butler was 2nd at 6’9.75” and freshman Jozef Mankovecky was 4th, also at 6’9.75”. Sophomore Stephen Afadapa was 8th at 6’8.25”.
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2014 Women’s Indoor Heps
The Cornell women returned from Dartmouth on Sunday night with a fifth place team finish at the Indoor Heps. Although disappointed with an outcome they are not accustomed to, the Big Red women were competitive throughout the weekend. A host of Cornellians were in contention for scoring throughout the two day meet but despite putting themselves in scoring position time and time again, the team seemed to come up just a bit short against great competitors in an outstanding League. The Big Red did produce two Heps champions (sophomore Udeme Akpaete in the 400 and the 4X400 of junior Zena Kolliesuah, senior co-captain Ebolutalese Airewele, junior Elyse Wilkinson and Akpaete) and the squad had a phenomenal 32 ECAC qualifiers.
With the most qualifiers to Sunday’s finals and the most competitors on day two of any of the schools, Cornell was poised for a charge up the team standings. In the end, Cornell finished the weekend with a meet best 29 top-10 event places; but in a competitive League, only having twelve of those result in a top-six scoring performance (of which only four were third or better) meant many scoring opportunities did not pan out and the Big Red ended the weekend with 54 points, ahead of Brown, Penn and Yale. Harvard took the team title for the second straight year with 122 points, followed by host Dartmouth with 102. Columbia was third with 95 and Princeton tallied 78 for fourth. But the Big Red fought hard all the way to the end and OT Airewele ’14 and Zena Kolliesuah ‘15 finished with a terrific victory in the 4X400, the twelfth win in that event indoors in the past thirteen years for Cornell. The Big Red’s competitive effort was never in doubt as the Cornell women gave great efforts throughout the weekend.
Even as the women were fighting hard to climb the ladder, it was exciting to watch the Big Red men WIN the Indoor Heps for the second straight year!
The Cornell women had a strong first day, qualifying a League-best twelve to the finals, while securing twelve points on Saturday. Junior Jennifer Markin was the Big Red’s first scorer on the weekend clearing 11-9 3/4 to get third, earning her sash and moving to #6 all-time at Cornell. The Big Red also got a pair of scorers in the long jump as the senior tandem of Anjelique Parnell (4th, 18-6 1-2) and Dominique Corley (5th, 18-1 3/4, to earn her sash!) competed well. And the Big Red did a great job advancing people to the finals: freshman Adrian Jones in the 60 (7.69), Kolliesuah (25.13) and Jones (25.19) in the 200), Akpaete (55.40), Kolliesuah (56.12), Airewele (56.30) and junior Katie Woodford (57.39) in the 400, junior Elyse Wilkinson in the 800 (2:10.56), senior co-captain Emmy Shearer (4:48.13) and sophomore Kristen Niedrach (4:49.85, #10 all-time) in the mile and senior Zaakirah Daniels (8.75) and
45 junior Mina Amick-Alexis (8.99) in the 60 hurdles. Several others barely missed scoring in Saturday’s finals: senior co-captain Rachel Sorna in the 5000 (7th, 16:41.55), sophomore Hillary Holmes in the pentathlon (8th, 3,484 points) and long jump (8th, 17-9), sophomore Alexis Bartholomew (8th, 11-5 3/4) and junior Eve Bishop (9th, 11-3 3/4) in the pole vault and and sophomore Camryn Goodman in the shot put (9th, 43-6 1/4).
The Big Red scored right off the bat in Sunday’s finals as Shearer took fourth in the mile, running 4:46.96, while Niedrach was ninth in 4:57.45. Daniels then set a PR for the second straight day, running a fine 8.74 to get fifth in the 60 hurdles, good for #6 all-time at Cornell; Amick-Alexis was seventh in 10.35. And after the 400, the Big Red appeared ready to charge up the team standings as Cornell piled up 20 points behind Akpaete’s first place run of 55.21, Kolliesuah’s third place finish of 55.74 and Aierwele’s fourth place 55.85. Woodford finished eighth in 58.91 after getting tripped up at the 200 meter mark. Wilkinson was the next to score for the Big Red, placing fourth in a fantastic 800 event, crossing the line in 2:08.40. Another point came in the 200 as freshman Adrian Jones earned her sash with a sixth place run of 25.12 after just missing scoring with a seventh place 60 dash of 7.74. Kolliesuah was seventh in the 200 in 25.20. In the 3K, Sorna demonstrated real grit in finding a way to score after overcoming an injury filled December and January. The defending champion was in contention throughout and fought all the way to the line to run a seasonal best of 9:27.82 for sixth and her classmate and fellow co-captain Emmy Shearer was right behind in seventh in 9:30.08. Sophomore Caroline Kellner placed second in the unseeded section to place twelfth overall in 9:44.66. Cornell just missed scoring in the 4X800 despite good efforts from senior Lauren Lloyd (2:16.1), Niedrach (2:16.8), sophomore Claire DeVoe (2:16.7) and freshman Libby Nolan (2:18.5) as the quartet was seventh in 9:08.61. Also coming very close to scoring was senior Kelley Roach, who made the triple jump final and ended up seventh in 38-0 3/4. In the high jump, senior Jenn Bush was eighth and sophomore Liz Crissy was tenth as both cleared 5-5 3/4.
Cornell’s final points came in the very last event of the meet as the Big Red waged a spirited battle Liz Simpson ’14 and Caroline Kellner ‘16 with Harvard before pulling away with authority in the latter stages of the race. Kolliesuah lead off gamely with a 56.6 spit, and Airewele was absolutely tremendous in splitting 54.7 to give Wilkinson a lead that the Big Red never relinquished. Wilkinson split 55.4 before handing off to Akpaete, who ran 54.6 to bring the baton across the line in 3:41.56 for a nearly four second victory, continuing the Big Red tradition of dominance in this event.
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The Big Red had several other performers on the weekend. Other ECAC qualifiers included Akpaete in the 200 (9th, 25.29), Lloyd in the 800 (12th, 2:13.89), DeVoe in the mile (13th, 4:58.03), Kellner (13th, 16:53.38), senior Liz Simpson (15th, 16:56.39), sophomore Maggi Szpak (21st, 17:14.03) and senior Devin McMahon (22nd, 17:19.07) in the 5000. And the Big Red saw competitive efforts from senior Sam Olyha in the pentathlon (12th, 3,297 points), Parnell (10th, 7.74) and sophomore Rochelle Forbes (17th, 7.97) in the 60, Airewele (13th, 25.62) and Katie Woodford (16th, 25.93) in the 200, junior Emily Woodford (10th, 58.02) in the 400, Nolan (23rd, :21.74) in the 800, junior Corey Dowe (25th, 5:13.52) in the mile, senior Shannon Daniels (12h, 17-6 1/4) in the long jump, McMahon (24th, 10:04.11) and Simpson (26th, 10:16.17) in the 3K and Goodman (15th, 38-9 1/2) in the weight throw.
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2014 Men’s Outdoor Season
The Cornell men followed up a superb indoor season with an equally strong outdoor performance. For the first time since 2010, the Big Red men won the Outdoor Heps championship, which was also the first time in five years that the men won the indoor and outdoor league titles in the same year. Stephen Mozia and Max Hairston captured Ivy League records in the discus (206’) and the 110m hurdles (13.74), respectively, and they, together with Peter Roach (17’4.5”, PV), Rob Robbins (248’11”, Jav), and the sprint medley team of Larry Gibson, Kinsley Ojukwu, Bruno Hortelano, and Will Weinlandt (3:21.01) set a slew of new school records.
Penn Relays: The men won four events at the famous Penn Relays, the SMR, 4x100m (40.64, featuring Justin McCollin, Larry Gibson, Stephen Bell, and Bruno Hortelano), Eastern pole vault (Grant Sisserson, 17’1”), and Eastern high jump (Tommy Butler, 6’9”), taking second in the shuttle hurdles as well in the best IC4A time (58.66) on the day. The hurdle relay performance was particularly exciting, as Max Hairston ’16 is the eldest hurdler of the bunch, with three freshmen – Austin Jamerson, Wynn Curtis, and Jordan Sherwood – who all scored at Heps championships this year. The future of Cornell hurdles is in good hands. Men’s 4x400 and coaches Heps: In a meet fraught with setbacks and surprises for Cornell, the men’s squad managed to pull together to deliver on a goal that seemed easy at the season’s outset, but after injuries plagued key contributors, the duel with Princeton rapidly became a close race. The Big Red came away with a narrow victory by just under 7 points in a meet that was a tight team battle all the way to the end. Athletic Director Andy Noel (our #1 fan!) was in attendance and made good on his promise to dye his hair red if the squad won the outdoor meet. Max Hairston was named Track MVP of the meet as the team had 6 event wins, 3 runner-up finishes, 6 3rd-place finishes, and 10 all-time, top-10 performances in school history.
At 110 hurdles, sophomore Max Hairston won in a scorching 13.94 (#2 all-time) as freshman Wynn Curtis was 5th in 14.72 and freshman Austin Jamerson was 6th in 14.75. In the 100, senior Justin McCollin was 3rd at 10.76 (10.71 prelims) and classmate Hercules Stancil was 5th in 10.90 (10.89 prelims). Hercules successfully converted to short sprinting this spring after injuries forced him to move from his usual long jump specialty. Senior Bruno Hortelano-Roig led the prelims at 10.48, but was unable to compete in the 100 and 200-meter finals due to a hamstring injury. Stepping up in his stead, sophomore Larry Gibson posted the fastest time in the prelims at 21.13 (tied for #7 all-time) before charging to the win in the final at 21.30 as Justin McCollin was 5th in 21.65 (21.38 prelims). Hortelano-Roig posted a 21.15 time in the prelims. At 400, Larry Gibson was 2nd in 47.89 (48.21 prelims), junior Cisco Olloqui was 5th at 49.18 (48.42
48 prelims), and freshman Will Gibson was 14th in 50.48. Max Hairston picked up his 2nd hurdle win of the weekend in the 400 hurdles in 51.49 (#5 all-time, IC4A). Freshman Jordan Sherwood was 3rd in 52.22, and freshman Justin Love was 7th in 53.46 (52.71 prelims). Also competing in the prelims were senior Andre Anderson (10th, 55.64) and Wynn Curtis (11th, 55.77).
In the middle distances, senior Will Weinlandt led the charge at 800, placing 4th in 1:49.84 (1:50.80 prelims). In the 1500, sophomore Sam Baxter was 10th in the final at 3:57.53 (3:51.71 prelims). Sophomore Ben Rainero was 11th in the prelims at 3:52.60 and junior Sam Belcher 22nd in 4:01.10. Sophomore Brian Eimstad picked up a pair of 8th-place finishes (14:39.59, 5k) and (30:02.65, 10k, IC4A) and freshman Mark Tedder was 16th at 5k in 15:09.74 in hot conditions. In the steeplechase, junior David Melly was clutch with a huge 14-second PR to place 3rd in 8:58.85 (#10 all-time).
The Big Red picked up 2 wins in the relays, winning the 4x100 in 40.42 (#5 all-time) behind Justin McCollin, Larry Gibson, Steven Bell, and Bruno Hortelano-Roig. The 4x400 team of Cisco Olloqui (48.1), Max Hairston (48.1), Will Weinlandt (47.3), and Larry Gibson (47.0) won in an impressive 3:10.76 (#8 all-time). The 4x800 was 8th in 7:47.01 with legs from Ben Rainero (1:54.2), Sam Baxter (1:59.0), Will Gibson (1:57.9), and Sam Belcher (1:55.9).
Junior Stephen Mozia was a triple threat in the throws, winning the shot put in 63’3.5”, placing 3rd in the discus (189’1”), and getting 3rd in the hammer (193’3”, #9 all-time). Sophomore Bryan Rhodes was 12th in the hammer at 167’1”. In the pole vault, junior Keith Rayburn was 2nd at 16’2.75” (ties his own #9 all-time performance) and there was a 3-way tie for 4th that included senior Peter Roach (15’9”) and Steven Pawlak (15’9”). Senior Montez Blair was 2nd in the high jump in an impressive 7’3.25”, senior Tommy Butler was 5th at 6’9.5”, freshman Justin Love was part of a 3-way tie for 6th at 6’6.75”, and freshman Jozef th Mankovecky was 10 in Grant Sisserson ‘17 6’3.5”. Blair also scored in the long jump (5th, 23’8”), as Mike Rabbitt was 7th in 23’5.25”, Austin Jamerson was 9th in 23’2.5”, Steven Bell was 11th in 22’1”, and freshman John Enkler was 12th at 22’0.25”. In the triple jump, senior Dan Scott was 5th in 48’5.5”, freshman Robert Plummer was 6th in 48’4.5”, Steven Bell was 9th in 46’8.75”, and John Enkler was 10th in 46’8”.
The trio of decathletes brought the heat all weekend as senior Mike Rabbit was 3rd (7,264 points, #2 all-time), freshman Austin Jamerson was 4th (6,717 points, #5 all-time, break his own freshman record), and freshman David Karabinos was 7th (6,226 points).
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IC4As: Senior Peter Roach electrified the Big Red with a monster 17’4.5” (5.30 meters) clearance in the pole vault, reclaiming the school record andsetting the #5 all-time, All-Ivy mark. Also scoring in the vault was freshman Grant Sisserson at 16’2.75”. Leading the scoring was junior Stephen Mozia with an impressive double, winning the shot put at 62’2.5” and grabbing runner-up honors in the discus at 197’10”. Freshman James Gowans returned to racing after a month-long injury to set a personal best in the 1500 at 3:47.74 before placing 3rd in the final at 3:50.35.
Also competing for Cornell was sophomore Larry Gibson, placing 13th in the 200 at 21.52 as freshman Wynn Curtis clocked15.59 in the 110-hurdles. In the distance events, Sam Belcher ran 3:59.76 in the 1500 and the trio of freshman Mark Tedder (14:36.66), sophomore Brian Eimstad (14:45.57), and freshman David Taylor competed in the 5k. Senior Chris Christoff wrapped up his collegiate career in the steeple with a near-PR of 9:15.21 and junior Jon Phillips returned to the track after a month-long back injury to record 32:05.71 in the 10k. Just missing scoring was sophomore Ty Kawalec, improving greatly from last year’s 19th place finish to get 9th in 31:05.21.
In the field, juniors Keith Rayburn and Steven Pawlak both cleared 15’9” in the pole vault as freshmen Bobby Plummer and John Enkler leapt 47’3.75” and 43’5”, respectively, in the triple jump. Sophomore Praduman Singh marked 48’0.5” in the shot put.
NCAA Preliminary Round: The Big Red men sent 11 athletes competing individually (2 in multiple events) and 2 relays to the NCAA East Regional meet in Jacksonville, FL. There, three athletes posted top-12 marks to advance to the final round of the NCAA outdoor championships, two of which recorded Ivy League record performances.
Stephen Mozia placed second in the discus (206’0”, Ivy record) and third in the shotput (66’10.5”, school record) to advance in both events. Mozia’s fifth-round discus throw was a personal best by over 8 feet. Joining him in Eugene will be Max Hairston, who set a personal best in the first round by a tenth of a second (13.85) and then bested that big PR by another tenth in the quarterfinals to run 13.74 for sixth overall, qualifying automatically with a second-place finish in his heat. He also placed 14th overall in the 400H with a time of 51.43, which would have been his PR if he had not already set his best of 51.42 the day before. Hairston finished out his busy weekend with a leg on the 4x400.
Montez Blair rounds out the national qualifiers for the men with a jump of 7’1.5”. Due to the nature of the Montez Blair ‘14 high jump qualifying, he did not continue after that
50 height, when his advancement was assured, but he cleared each height he did compete at without a single miss.
Rounding out the successful performances on the track for the men were Will Weinlandt, who advanced to the quarterfinals with a 1:48.89 in the 800 (1:56.58 in the quarters), David Melly in the steeplechase (9:14.02, 42nd), Larry Gibson in 200 (21.22, 30th), Jordan Sherwood in the 400H (52.28, 29th), the 4x100 (McCollin, Gibson, Bell, Ojukwu, 17th in 39.98), and 4x400 (Gibson, Hairston, Olloqui, Weinlandt, 20th in 3:09.80) relays. The 4x100’s time was only the third time a Cornell team has gone under 40 seconds, and only the fourth Ivy quartet to do so. More impressively, the 2014 lineup contained 3 legs who were not on the team who ran under 40 the year before.
In the field events, Mozia and Blair were followed by Tommy Butler in the high jump (6’6”, 38th), as well as Grant Sisserson and Peter Roach in the pole vault (33rd and 34th, respectively, in 16’5.5”).
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2014 Women’s Outdoor Season
The Cornell women followed up their indoor season with a great outdoor season, finishing third at Heps and fifth at ECACs. Senior Rachel Sorna broke her own school record in the steeplechase (9:43), which is an Ivy League record, and also set school records as well in the 3k (9:09) and 5k (15:54). Sophomore Udeme Akpaete broke her own school record in the 400m, lowering her mark to 53.24, and anchored the women’s 4X4 to many dominant performances, including several Ivy League-record times and an NCAA qualifier.
Heps: The Cornell women had their best team performance of the year at the right time, finishing strongly on Sunday to claim third at the Outdoor Heps in New Haven, CT. Just as the Cornell men pulled out a thrilling team title, the Big Red women fought hard throughout the weekend and finished the weekend with 94 points, behind outstanding teams from Harvard (162) and Dartmouth (149) and ahead of Columbia (88) and Princeton (86) to improve in a huge way from the fifth place team finish at the indoor Heps just two months ago.
The weekend’s team performance was great across the board as Cornell had three event wins (senior co-captain Rachel Sorna in the 3K steeple, junior Zena Kolliesuah in the 400 and the 4X400) and two second place finishes (Sorna in the 3K and sophomore Udeme Akpaete in the 400) to go along with 20 scoring performances and a remarkable 35 ECAC qualifying performances as well as eight changes to the school top 10 lists. In a meet full of Devin McMahon ’14, Liz Simpson ’14, highlights, a few performances stood out: Sorna’s and Taylor Spillane ‘17 remarkable distance triple (33:36 for 3rd in the 10K, 10:03 for first in the steeplechase and a 2nd place 9:20 in the 3K that was under the old meet record) in a 21 hour period and the dominating 1-2-3 showing by Cornell in the 400 that was followed by a nearly six second victory by the 4X400. But as with so many great Cornell women’s teams through the years, a true team effort led to the team’s strong result.
Cornell got on the board in the very first event on Saturday as junior Felicia Reid scored for the third straight year at the Heps in the javelin, stepping up for a third straight year with a PR. This year, she threw 144-6, good for #5 all-time at Cornell; freshman Kacie Hargett qualified for the finals in her first Heps, reaching 132-9 for eighth. Despite a thunderstorm that caused a 45- minute delay, senior Anjelique Parnell kept her composure to finish fifth in 18-9 3/4 in the long jump; classmate Dominique Corley was ninth at 18-4 1/2 and sophomore Hillary Holmes was tenth at 18-3 1/4. Also keeping her cool was junior Eve Bishop in the pole vault. Immediately after the rain delay, she produced a big clearance at 12-1 1/2, which led to a fine fifth place finish; classmate Jennifer Markin competed well to get seventh at 11-9 3/4.
Cornell closed out its point total on day one by taking half of the scoring places in the 10K. In a match-up of three cross country All-Americans (Dartmouth’s national champion Abbey D’Agostino, Princeton freshman Meghan Curham and Sorna), the pace was out quick despite
52 humid and windy conditions, far from ideal for the long race. Sorna battled hard and despite a late-race stomach cramp finished third in 33:36.46, the eighth best time in meet history. Sophomore Caroline Kellner had a huge competitive breakthrough, battling back fiercely in the final mile to place an outstanding fourth in 34:27.27. Also battling all the way through was senior Devin McMahon, who scored for the third straight year with a sixth place 35:24.34. Sophomore Maggi Szpak (8th, 36:03.11) and senior Liz Simpson (9th, 36:09.00) gave Cornell five of the top nine finishers.
The Cornell cause also benefitted from eleven finals qualifiers out of the preliminary rounds. Sophomore Udeme Akpaete led the way by bettering two school records. In the 400, she ran the sixth best time in meet history, breaking her own school record with a run of 53.24 and in the 200, ran a 23.71w to advance. Also advancing in the 400 was senior co-captain Ebolutalese Airewele (54.35, #6 all-time), Kolliesuah (54.98) and junior Katie Woodford (55.73). Freshman Adrian Jones had a great day, advancing to the finals of the 100 (11.92, #6 all-time) while barely missing in the 200 (#7 all-time) with a PR 24.41. Senior Zaakirah Daniels set a PR to advance in the 100 hurdles (14.00) and the duo of senior co-captain Ryan Woolley (61.85) and junior Emily Woodford (61.93) moved on in the 400 hurdles. In the 800, junior Elyse Wilkinson ran 2:07.77 (#6 all-time) ran aggressively in moving on to the final and in the 1500, sophomore Kristen Niedrach moved on to her second career final, running 4:29.39, a PR.
With the table set for a great conclusion to the meet on Sunday, the Big Red took advantage of their opportunities throughout the second day, scoring in 11 OT Airewele ’14 and Zena Kolliesuah ‘15 of 13 finals on the track. One of the first big highlights came in the 3K steeplechase, as Sorna claimed her second straight title, running 10:03.25 (she now has the second and third best times in meet history) on a breezy and sunny afternoon. Sophomore Claire DeVoe had a good race to place fifth in 10:32.48 while juniors Bori Tozser (8th, 10:45.50) and Corey Dowe (13th, 11:06.20) competed hard. Good hurdling continued with Daniels in the 100 hurdles, as she placed fifth in a PR of 14.00w, #4 all-time at Cornell.
That set the stage for a truly dominant showing for the Big Red quarter milers. Kolliesuah closed very well to claim her first career individual Heps title in 54.40 while Akpaete ran 54.61 and Airewele crossed in 54.73 as the trio scored 24 points with their 1-2-3 finish. Katie Woodford just missed scoring with a seventh place time of 56.59. Jones ran a very good race to place fifth in the 100 with a time of 11.94 and then Wilkinson ran a great final to get third in the 800 in 2:07.88. Emily Woodford scored for the first time at the Heps with a sixth place finish of 63.13 while Woolley was seventh at 63.15. Akpaete completed a remarkable individual double by placing third in a loaded 200 field, running 24.18. Cornell closed out its individual scoring in
53 the 3K. In the final running of this event at the Heps (the outdoor 3K will be retired after a recent vote by Ivy Athletic Directors), one of the all-time great women’s distance races in League history unfolded with a very fast early pace. After some early help from teammate Corey Dowe, Sorna led a pack of six that included four All-Americans (all of whom are Heps champions themselves) through 5:00 at the mile. Dartmouth’s D’Agostino pulled away with 800 to go and Sorna somehow found another gear on her 40th lap of the weekend to pull away from the rest of the all-star field, running her final lap in 69.8. Not to be denied, she ran an amazing 9:20.62 to place second, under D’Agostino’s old meet record.
There were several other very good individual efforts on Sunday. Chief amongst them came in the 5K as McMahon came back valiantly from the 10K the night before. In the very first final on Sunday morning, she led the first nine laps of the 5K and rallied in the final 1000 to place an outstanding eighth in 17:06.93; Szpak had a good race to place 13th in 17:16.48 while Spillane was 14th in 17:30.20 and Simpson was 17th in 17:46.46. Niedrach placed tenth in the 1500 in 4:36.44.
Last, but not least, the Big Red had three scoring performances in the relays. The big highlight came in the 4X400 as the Big Red ran the second best time in meet history to place first by nearly six seconds over Harvard. The quartet of Kolliesuah (54.5), Airewele (53.9), Katie Woodford (54.7) and Akpaete (53.8) ran 3:37.06 to win the event for the ninth time in 13 years! Earlier, in the 4X800, the Big Red placed a very good fourth behind legs from Knudson (2:12.5), Wilkinson (2:09.2), DeVoe (2:15.6) and Nolan (2:15.0), running 8:52.50. And the 4X100 placed fifth behind carries from Jones, Kolliesuah, Airewele and Katie Woodford, running 46.13.
ECACs: The Big Red women, despite bringing a smaller than usual squad due to a new final exam schedule at Cornell that has exams offered on Saturday and Sunday, had an outstanding weekend at the ECAC Championships, returning from Princeton Sunday night with an outstanding fifth place finish, scoring 30.5 points. Led by a pair of school records in the 4X100 and 4X400 that included a very impressive ECAC title in the 4X400, the Big Red had seven scoring performances and five changes to the school all-time top ten lists.
The biggest highlight of the weekend came in the meet’s final event as the 4X400 claimed a commanding victory in 3:35.50, a new all-time Ivy League record and over a half a second faster than the venerable school record of 3:36.04 set by another ECAC-winning Big Red squad of Cameron Washington ’07, Kari Steed ’05, Linda Trotter Coaches Artie Smith and Lisa Holt ’06 and Shonda Brown ’05 back in 2005. This year’s team (already the indoor ECAC champs in the 4X400 back in March) won the 2014 title with a line-up of junior Zena Kolliesuah (54.5), junior Elyse Wilkinson (54.9 to pass two teams and
54 take the lead), senior co-captain Ebolutalese Airewele (53.3 to extend the lead) and sophomore Udeme Akpaete (a stunning 52.4). In a demonstration of the team’s remarkable depth, a different line-up ran 3:37.21 (#5 all-time at Cornell) qualified for the finals in Saturday’s prelims: Airewele (54.1), Wilkinson (54.0), junior Katie Woodford (55.8) and Akpaete (53.1) became the third different line-up to crack the top five in school history this outdoor season.
The meet got off to a great start on Saturday when the 4X100 set a school record in the first preliminary race. Freshman Adrian Jones, Kolliesuah, Airewele and Woodford ran a spectacular 45.55, the second best time in Ivy League history, to win their heat as Woodford out-fought Syracuse’s anchor by .02. The quartet came back on Sunday to run 45.92 to place a very competitive fourth.
In addition to running critical legs on both 4X100s and the 4X400 in the final, Kolliesuah had a great weekend in her individual event. She qualified for the final of the 400 in 54.75 on Saturday and then came back to run 54.18 for third in Sunday’s final, good for fourth all-time at Cornell. There were several other outstanding scoring performances throughout the weekend. On Friday night, junior Corey Dowe put Cornell’s first points on the board with a PR of 10:33.37 (#7 all-time at Cornell) in the 3K steeplechase to place sixth. On Sunday, sophomore Claire DeVoe also had a PR, running aggressively in a highly accomplished field in the 3000, placing a terrific fifth in 9:45.75. Classmate Kristen Niedrach had a good race as well, placing eighth in 4:29.70 to close out a breakthrough second year at Cornell. And in the pole vault, junior Eve Bishop was over 12 feet for the fourth straight meet, clearing 12-0 1/2 to tie for sixth at her first outdoor ECAC meet.
NCAA Preliminary Round: The Cornell women sent 11 competitors to the first round of the NCAA championships in Jacksonville, FL, where senior Rachel Sorna and the 4X400 relay advanced to the finals in Eugene, OR. The 4X400 bested their own Ivy League record to advance on time, and Sorna comfortably led tape-to- tape in her preliminary steeplechase round to qualify with a first-place finish in her heat.
Junior Elyse Wilkinson advanced to the Rachel Sorna ‘14 finals of the 800m with a PR performance of 2:06.39, following up that breakthrough performance with a 2:07.86 mark for 18th overall off her 40th-place seed coming into the meet. Junior Zena Kolliesuah and sophomore Udeme Akpaete continued to put up strong performances in the 400, running 54.19 and 54.37, respectively, in competitive races that prepared them well for the relay on the meet’s final day of competition.
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The women’s 10k featured a quartet of Big Red athletes who battled hard through the heat and humidity to put up great performances. Caroline Kellner ’16 led the charge with a 16th-place performance (34:50), followed by Devin McMahon (18th, 34:56), Maggi Spzak (41st, 36:45), and Liz Simpson ‘14 (43rd, 37:37). In the steeplechase, Sorna won her heat in 9:53, while teammate Claire DeVoe ran 10:29 to better her seed by 11 places.
The final day of competition was perhaps the most thrilling for Big Red fans and competitors, as Sorna ran a gutsy 5k in a stacked field, leading for much of the middle mile and placing 21st in 16:30. The 4X400 proved dramatic as the Cornell women ran an excellent race for sixth in the first heat, the last time qualifier spot. Kolliesuah led off in 53.4, followed by Wilkinson in 54.8, OT Airewele ’14 in 53.3, and Akpaete in a blistering 52.6, out-leaning Hampton College’s anchor to give the team a shot at advancing to Eugene. The quartet then had to wait with bated breath (along with their coaches and teammates) as the next two heats ran to see if their time would hold up. One fast fourth-place finish would have knocked them out of the finals, but the Big Red mark of 3:34.40 was good to advance. As the results of the third heat flashed across the board, the Big Red section erupted in whoops and cheers (the loudest from Coach Bowman) and ran down to join the relay team, who were doing plenty of yelling, smiling, and even crying themselves. It was a dramatic climax to a long season for the Big Red, but as any track athlete will tell you, moments like those are why we show up every day.
The women’s 4X400 moments after their race
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2014 Awards
The ever-impressive Big Red men and women closed out their season with a touching and emotional awards banquet, where many of the team’s best and brightest stars were recognized for their hard work and outstanding contributions to the team and the university. Congratulations to all the winners!
Women: Fleet Morse Award (Most Improved): Eve Bishop ‘15 Marc Deneault Award (Outstanding Freshman): Adrian Jones ‘17 Hank Russell Award (Best Sprinter): Udeme Akpaete ‘16 Theodota Ladas Award (Best mid-distance): Elyse Wilkinson '15 Dr. George Ladas Award (Best distance): Rachel Sorna '14 Theodota Ladas Award (Best jumper): Anjelique Parnell ‘14 Dr. George Ladas Award (Best Thrower): Felicia Reid ‘15 Walker Smith Award (Best Hurdler): Zaakirah Daniels ‘14 "Jinky" Crozier Award (Most Valuable): Rachel Sorna ‘14 Blanford Award (Most Points over 4 Years): Rachel Sorna ‘14 Gatling Award (Senior who has done the most): Emmy Shearer ‘14 Spindler Award (Coaches Award): Sam Olyha ‘14
2014-2015 Captains: Mina Amick-Alexis ’15, Zena Kolliesuah ’15, Elyse Wilkinson ’15, Katie Woodford ‘15
Men: Fleet Morse Award (Most Improved - Track): Justin McCollin ‘14 Fleet Morse Award (Most Improved - Field): Praduman Sing ‘16 Marc Deneault Award (Outstanding Freshman): Austin Jamerson ’17 and Grant Sisserson ‘17 Hank Russell Award (Best Sprinter): Bruno Hortelano-Roig '14 Theodota Ladas Award (Best mid-distance): Will Weinlandt '14 Dr. George Ladas Award (Best distance): Brian Eimstad ’16 and David Melly ‘15 Theodota Ladas Award (Best jumper): Montez Blair '14 Dr. George Ladas Award (Best Thrower): Stephen Mozia '15 Walker Smith Award (Best Hurdler): Max Hairston '16 Narcissa Kellett Award (Most Valuable): Montez Blair ’14, Bruno Hortelano-Roig ’14, and Stephan Mozia ‘15 Gatling Award (Senior who has done the most): Hercules Stancil ‘14 Spindler Award (Coaches Award): Nick Athanasopoulos ’15, Casey Leamon ‘14
2014-15 Captains: Max Hairston ’15, Stephen Mozia '15, Cisco Olloqui ‘15
Additionally, we want to recognize the program’s two Marshall Scholars, Emmy Shearer ’14 and Sam Olyha ’14! Congratulations, ladies!
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Acknowledgments
Thank you to Artie Smith, Zebulon Lang, and all the other coaches who contributed meet and season recaps.
Thank you to the members of Spiked Shoe Society, especially Maya Golliday, Tobenna Attah, and the CUTF 2014 captains for contributing their time and work to this publication.
Thank you to Ross Hartung, Michael Scott, Doug Austin, and all others whose photographs appear in this issue.
And finally, thank you to all the Cornell student-athletes, coaches, alumni, families, and fans who made this year and this program exceptional! Without your passion, support, and hard work, none of this would be possible.
Here’s to a great 2014-2015 season! Go Big Red! 58