Track & Field: Dinkins’ painful lap wins Heptagonals

But this was Dinkins’ day, and he was not about to let that happen. Gritting his teeth, Dinkins ferociously limped his way around the final lap to hand off to sophomore anchor Tom Hopkins. Princeton finished in third, getting the necessary points, and sealed its third straight Ivy League title.

The event was the last race of a long and hard weekend. Battling off Cornell to the very end, over the course of the weekend, the Tigers truly earned their title as Heps champions.

In Saturday’s lone track final, seniors Joe Stilin and Donn Cabral widened Princeton’s cushion over Cornell as they lit up the track in the 3K. Going out in a conservative 4 minutes, 30 seconds through the mile, Cabral hit the front hard with Stilin in tow, and John Bleday of Dartmouth not far behind. Going into the penultimate lap, Stilin took the lead in a charge for home, with Cabral right on his heels. However, the two Tigers could not switch gears fast enough as Bleday continued to accelerate over the final 200m, just nipping both Cabral and Stilin for first in 8:11.30. Stilin crossed second in 8:11.42, with Cabral third in 8:11.69.

“He kind of caught us sleeping a bit,” co-captain Cabral said. “We were getting comfortable with our position and didn’t realize that he was coming on the outside, and he just passed us both and got Joe at the line.”

Kicking off the meet late Saturday morning, Princeton first started to put ground between itself and Cornell in the weight throw and pole vault. Easily handling the competition, sophomore Ivy League record-holder Conor McCullough demolished the meet record with a throw of 22.94 meters, gapping second-place Cornell by over four meters.

With 10 points up on the board, Princeton’s deep vaulting talent got to work. Despite clearing 5.20 meters, senior co-captain Dave Slovenski was handed a rare loss by Harvard rival Nico Weiler. Meanwhile, however, senior Derek Hynes and freshman Adam Bragg stepped up to take third and fourth, respectively, behind Slovenski to complete a Princeton 2-3-4 for 17 points.

Also in the field, the competition continued with the men’s long jump as sophomores Tom Hopkins and Damon McLean placed third and fifth to break up Cornell’s army of long jumpers.

Going into Sunday’s finals, Princeton had a tenuous 14-point lead over Cornell. Pre-meet form charts predicted a 10-point win for Cornell if everything went as expected. If the Tigers were going to scrape out a victory in Ithaca, they would have to compete as hard and as smart as they could in order to keep Cornell at bay.

“Everyone knew what we needed to do — not only just what we needed but what we could do,” Cabral said. “Everyone stepped up their game and just knew how awesome it would be to take the trophy from Cornell in Ithaca.”

Lining up for the first race of the day in the men’s mile, seniors Stilin and Trevor Van Ackeren made a statement that they did not drive all the way deep into New York to come home empty-handed. After following an absurdly slow opening half of 2:26, the jammed pack exploded out over the final 800 meters. Kicking hard behind Columbia’s Kyle Merber, Stilin and Van Ackeren picked up big points for Princeton as they placed second and third, respectively, in 4:22.25 and 4:22.38.

Princeton’s triple jumpers picked it up in the field, as McLean picked up a huge win for the Tigers, jumping 49 feet, 7.25 inches. Freshman Nana Owusu-Nyantekyi, in his first competition since injuring his hamstring a few weeks ago, took a critical fourth place.

Following in the 60m hurdles, junior Ricky Sheldon placed third in 8.18 seconds, with freshman Rob Mohr right behind in fourth. The pair picked up 10 important points, yet Cornell continued to trim the lead as they took 1-2-5-6 for 21 points.

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Answering the challenge, Hopkins won the 400m while Dinkins blitzed the 500 field in 62.72 seconds. Hopkins, a workhorse over the weekend competing in four events, finished the 400m in 48.33 seconds.

Then it was time for the 60m dash, one of Cornell’s deadliest events. The imposing start list was filled with Cornell names, and if all had gone as planned, Cornell could have easily piled on over 24 points right then and there. But disaster struck the home team, as runners from Harvard and Dartmouth pulled off upsets and held the Big Red to only nine points.

Keying off of this opening, the Tigers attacked. Over the following 800m, 1000m and 5000m, events Princeton scored a huge 47 points, burying Cornell’s meager eight. Driving hard over the final lap, both junior Peter Callahan and Van Ackeren came from behind to win the 800m and 1K, respectively. Coming home in a big fourth place, sophomore Michael Williams added to Callahan’s points in the 800m.

The men’s 5K went out slowly, as Cabral kept the pace pedestrian. As the lap count increased, the tension to see what Princeton could do mounted. Then, with 300 meters to go, Cabral took off, dragging sophomore Chris Bendtsen with him. Cabral won another conference title with Bendsten second, but still kicking wildly behind them, sophomore Jonathan Vitez ran the race of his life to grab fourth place and give the Tigers 22 massive points in that event.

“It was nice to get the 10 points for me personally, and Chris getting second was huge … but that fourth place, those extra four points, those are the types of things that when we put them together we are going to win,” Cabral said.

Holding off Cornell’s final charge over the last few events of the meet, Princeton never relinquished its lead and retained the Ivy League crown for yet another year.

Although it was a happy ending for the men, the Princeton women fell behind on the first day of the competition and just couldn’t make up the ground. Though the Tigers were the defending champions from last year, the talent of the rest of the league has simply grown tremendously. By the end of the meet, Princeton finished sixth with 56 points.

While the loss was a disappointment for the Tigers, the meet was not without its highlights. Capturing Most Outstanding Performer of the Championships honors, junior pole vaulter Tory Worthen had the jump of her life on Saturday. Erasing her previous season-best of 3.96 meters, Worthen set a new Ivy League and school record as she soared over 4.12 meters, or 13 feet, 6.25 inches. Worthen crushed the rest of the field, with no other vaulters even attempting anything higher than 3.90 meters.

Senior co-captain Eileen Moran also had a strong meet, as she placed third in both the 60m and 200m dashes. Not finished, Moran came back to be part of the second place 4x400m squad. Producing another win for the Tigers, sophomores Kristin Smoot and Kacie O’Neil and juniors Alexis Mikaelian and Greta Feldman ran a season best of 8:44.32 in the 4x800m. Feldman also placed fourth earlier Sunday in the women’s mile — finishing in 4:49.95. Meanwhile, earlier on Saturday, sophomore Theresa Devine ran a personal best of 16:45.23 to finish in fourth place in the 5K.

Regardless of the outcome, Heps is more than just another race for the Tigers. For sure it is one of intense school pride and competitive fire, but it is also one of the best all-round experiences of the season for all team members.

“Heps is just the best bonding experience — to be there with the rest of the guys and girls, cheering them on,” Cabral said. “It is just awesome having everything click and pulling together and scraping out more points than you are expected to on that last day.”