Track & Field: 4xMile team wins Penn Relays

The team of freshman Chris Bendtsen, junior Donn Cabral, senior Kyle Soloff and senior Mark Amirault won the event with a time of 16 minutes, 19.98 seconds. The Tigers barely edged out the foursome from Arkansas, which finished less than half of a second later at 16:20.42.

“I’m super proud of the guys. It was a really great effort for us today,” distance coach Steve Dolan said. “We’ve had some good runs in the past years in the 4xMile and distance medley relay and ended up fifth or sixth. We always go home saying, ‘We can do this guys.’ We’ve dreamed about it all year.”

The 4xMile relay was the first collegiate event to run on Saturday. Twelve teams qualified for the race, including the Tigers, which placed fifth last year with a team that included Soloff and Amirault. Bendtsen was not initially slated to compete for Princeton, but an injury to junior Trevor Van Ackeren during the previous week forced the rookie to lead off the event.

He finished his mile in 4:08.8, handing off the baton in second place.

“I was really nervous before the race, but at the line before the start I was pretty relaxed and ready to go,” Bendtsen said in an email.

The Tigers remained within striking distance until Amirault took to the track for the final leg. The senior chased down Ben Hubers of then-leading Indiana and passed the Razorbacks’ Duncan Phillips for the victory.

“The thought of winning was definitely at the back of my mind when I started my leg, but once I was back on Phillips’ shoulder I really felt good and knew I had a chance to win,” Amirault said in an email. “At that point I just wanted to be the last guy to make a move for the finish ... my teammates and I were joking after that this might all be a dream.”

“I knew that if we all did our jobs to get Mark within reach, which we did, then he would take care of the rest,” Bendtsen said. Being part of this relay and winning at such a big stage was really an amazing experience to share with these guys.”

Indiana finished third at 16:22.02, while no other team was within six seconds of the victors.

“On paper we didn’t have the fastest times, but we have four great competitors, and it’s who wins on that day and you have to be a great competitor,” Dolan said. “Every single guy competed with their heart and we did well with this group, I’m really proud of them.”

Junior David Slovenski finished sixth in the pole vault, while Princeton’s 4x400m relay team came in 10th place.