Jessup wins pole vault for m. track in Tennessee; women fall to Penn, Yale

It seems that at nearly every meet the men's outdoor track team competes in, the Tigers get strong performances from complementary athletes, who manage to individually step up and support the cornerstones of the team.

At the Hurricane Invitational, it was freshmen David Gary and Jon Bell. At the Sam Howell Invitational, it was freshmen Jeff Petrulis and Brandon Braun-stein. And almost every Princeton sprinter in the 100 meters came through for the Tigers at the Princeton-Penn-Penn St.-Villanova dual meet.

This Saturday at the Sea Ray Relays in Knoxville, Tenn. — a meet featuring over 65 schools — the pattern of the Tigers' success continued. Although only a few members of the team competed at the meet, Princeton made a mark on the national scene. This weekend, some of the lesser-known athletes who stepped up with quality performances included sophomore Wes Stockard, freshman David Dean, and juniors Pat Anglin and Dennis Norman.

Stockard, a distance specialist, took ninth place overall in the 5000, while Anglin took 38th in the 1500 at three minutes, 58.55 seconds. Dean ended up 22nd in the 800, timing in at 1:52.51. Norman competed in the shot put and threw 52 feet, 2.75 inches, good for seventh overall.

But Princeton also had two of its most reliable upperclassmen come through Saturday. Junior Jonathan Jessup won the pole vault with a mark of 16-10, and senior captain John Mack was eighth in the 400 at 47:14.

While the men competed on the national scale, the women's track team was busy in conference action at a dual meet with Yale and Penn in New Haven, Conn. Princeton finished with 41 points, falling to both the Elis (89) and Quakers (62).

The women were led by the sophomore class, which provided the bulk of the team's solid showings. Holly Huffman was among those successful sophomores, as she won the 3000 at 10:05.81.

A few good women

"It was a tough meet. We were overmatched by both Yale and Penn," women's head coach Peter Farrell said. "But we had quite a few good individual performances.

"Holly had a great push on the final turn to get past a Yale player."

Two more sophomores won their events at the meet. Natalie Deffenbaugh posted a personal best in the 400 hurdles with a time of 1:01.88, and Lauren Simmons nabbed the 800 title at 2:11.37.

The high jumpers continued to get critical points for the Tigers. Senior captain Shawneequa Callier cleared 5-9 1/2 for first overall, and junior teammate Rebecca Desman was second at 5-5.

These improved performances give Princeton hope that it will be competitive down the stretch.

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"We're short on sprinters, and adding the javelin [in the outdoor season] has hurt us, but we're continuing to get better," Farrell said. "We were missing some of our people for academic and athletic reasons, but we got [senior captain] Allison Brown back."

Both track teams will look to the Penn Relays, held April 27-29, but the men will first compete next weekend at the Connecticut Invitational.