Track & Field: Hopkins sprints to record-setting 400

Tearing out of the first turn fueled with adrenaline, Hopkins took off to a fast start. Accelerating down the backstretch, he headed into the turn for home and tried to hang on. Driving down the final straightaway, Hopkins sprinted away from the field and his old best times. Stopping the clock in 46.23 seconds, Hopkins demolished his previous career best of 47.14 and set a new Princeton program record in the process. Hopkins’ time erased the 52-year-old mark of 46.44 set by Dick Edmunds in 1960.

“I thought maybe I could run pretty close to my PR, maybe a little bit faster. Ideally, it would be 46.9. That’s what I was hoping for coming into the meet,” Hopkins said. “After the race, I didn’t know what to think. There weren’t any signs; it just came out of nowhere — it was really left field. So it just left me dumbfounded for the most part.”

Already high-strung after the fumble at the starting line, Hopkins’ burning first 200 meters were fueled partly by a comment the meet announcer made not long into the race.

“After 150 meters I started to hear the announcer say that lane six is making moves — I was in lane four — and say that it looks like six may have made up the stagger,” Hopkins said. “That made me angry, because I thought, ‘No, no, no, I definitely made the stagger first!’ So I just started running, thinking about all the things we had practiced, and I guess it paid off.”

Nevertheless, as the lactic acid slowly flooded his legs, Hopkins soon started to have to make sure that he would not pay for his reckless start.

“Mike Eddy, my mentor from last year, always said that the trick to running 46 is getting out and then holding on,” Hopkins said. “Coming down the final straight the announcer said, ‘Tom Hopkins, here he is, can he hold on?’ and I just thought, ‘Damn, I hope so.’ ”

While no more school records were brought down that afternoon, the men’s 1500m provided more excitement on the track. Racing against a field that included professional Alan Webb, the American record holder in the mile, senior Joe Stilin settled into a comfortable position right off the back of the leaders. Keeping the pace steady at 59–60 seconds per lap, the pack cruised through the night. Coming into the bell lap, Stilin began to move up, and in the final 150 meters, he swung wide and kicked hard to finish in second place in 3:42.79, the third-fastest time in school history. An out-of-shape Webb faded to fourth, while, sprinting hard in ninth place, sophomore Michael Williams had a huge race as he shattered his personal best, finishing just under 3:45 in 3:44.97.

While the men were busy competing down in Maryland, the women traveled to Philadelphia to challenge Penn in a dual meet. Pulling away in the end, the women won, scoring 85 points to Penn’s 77.

Taking both the 100m and 200m events, senior co-captain Eileen Moran quickly helped put Princeton ahead. Continuing to pile on points, sophomore Molly Higgins and junior Maggie McKeever went one and two in the 1500m, with Higgins winning in 4 minutes, 31.61 seconds.

Crushing the rest of the field by nearly two seconds, junior Greta Feldman ran a quick time in the 800m, finishing in 2:06.66, just a few tenths off of her personal best.

Classmate Alexis Mikaelian finished not far behind in third place, clocking in at 2:09.57.

Dominating the jumps, the Tigers won the triple jump and long jump as sophomore Imani Oliver took the triple with 11.95 meters, while junior Erin Guty leaped to 5.72 meters in the long jump for first.

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Sealing the win, Princeton swept the 3000m as senior co-captain Alex Banfich, juniors Abby Levene and Abby Hewitt and sophomore Theresa Devine placed first through fourth.

Looking forward in the season, the men and women will host the Larry Ellis Invitational this weekend on Friday night and Saturday. In the meantime, the Tigers have the opportunity to assess the last few weeks of racing and training and prepare to move forward. For some athletes such as Hopkins, the plans are far from clear.

“I’m kind of confused at the moment on what I want to focus on next — whether it would be to try to pursue an even faster time in the 400 or work on other events that might help the team,” Hopkins said. “It sure would be fine to run a 45, but ironically that would ruin my summer plans because I had no intention of going to Nationals.”