Track & Field: Tigers keep up record-setting ways at Sam Howell

Friday evening provided a spree of record-setting performances as the magic continued on the track. Highlighting the elite night of distance races, the Tigers rolled in the 10,000m, sending no less than five men under 30 minutes. Running the race of his life, sophomore Alejandro Arroyo Yamin kept pace with the cruising pack before finally breaking away from the field with less than half a mile to go.

“Friday night, I just tried to turn on the automatic pilot, hop on the back of the train and just go with it,” Arroyo Yamin said. “We were clicking exact times, we were right on pace — it was perfect. With two laps to go, I was feeling good, and I thought, ‘Alejandro, are you going to make a move or not?’ I said, ‘What the hell, let’s go!’ ”

Pushing over the final laps, Arroyo Yamin finished in a new meet record of 29 minutes, 27.00 seconds and set a phenomenal personal best in the process. Continuing on his road back from injury, senior Brian Leung crossed the line in second place, finishing in 29:34.72. Sophomore Tyler Udland, senior Thomas Dialynas and junior Michael Franklin all broke 30 minutes.

“I knew I was going to be under 30, but I wasn’t expecting to go under 29:30. It was a big shock,” Arroyo Yamin said. “At the same time, it was just a great feeling because it told me that I was right there with my aerobic fitness. It’s just a matter of waiting.”

Running earlier in the day, senior co-captain Donn Cabral essentially time-trialed the 3000m steeplechase, as he demolished the rest of the field by nearly 20 seconds. Finishing in 8:39.92, Cabral set a new meet record and broke the former best time of 8:49.95 held by teammate Trevor Van Ackeren. Nevertheless, the two-time NCAA runner-up was looking for a little bit more.

“I was kind of happy with the fact that I ran, I think, 13 seconds faster than last year at this time, so that was a big improvement,” Cabral said. “But I was hoping for significantly faster. I was trying to break 8:30, and I ran 8:39.”

Meanwhile, the women also had a number of breakout performances on Friday night. Running in the steeplechase, freshman Jackie Nicholas shattered her previous season best of 11:17.11 as she ran to an all- time personal best of 10:48.56. Placing third in the 10K, junior Abby Levene was yet another Tiger who set a personal record, finishing in 35:32.64.

Competing in a mostly professional field, juniors Greta Feldman and Alexis Mikaelian placed seventh and eighth, respectively, in the 1500m, while sophomore Molly Higgins followed in ninth. Feldman ran a quick time of 4:22.35, with Mikaelian coming in at 4:25.52. Higgins slashed over four seconds from her personal best, as she finished in 4:28.47.

Heading the sprints on the second day of the meet, sophomore Tom Hopkins had a big day when he won the 200m, ran a leg in the winning 4x100m relay and placed second in the long jump. Hopkins stopped the clock at 21.48 seconds in the 200m and jumped to 7.20 meters in the long jump.

In the 800m, sophomore Michael Williams continued to prove ever since indoors that he can run with the best, as he ran a personal best 1:49.79 to place sixth in a field of mostly post-collegiate and professional athletes. Freshman Bradley Paternostro ran 1:50.67 to take seventh right behind Williams.

Starting off Saturday for the women, the 4x100m relay of juniors Abidemi Adenikinju and Erin Guty, senior co-captain Eileen Moran and sophomore Lily Miller set a new meet record, running 48.83 seconds to win the race. Bookending the meet with another strong performance in the 4x400m relay at the end of the day, Moran, sophomore Carrie Vuong, junior Joie Hand and freshman Cecilia Barowski bettered the old meet record, finishing in 3:48.02, but were beaten by the mostly professional NJ-NY Track Club.

Earlier, Barowski ran 56.19 seconds in the 400m to place as the top collegian. In the 800m, Feldman doubled back from the 1500m the night before to take third place in 2:09.04.

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In the field, sophomore Imani Oliver was the runner-up in the triple jump, reaching 12.18 meters on her third attempt. Oliver also competed in the long jump, where she set a personal best of 5.30 meters, or 17 feet, 4.75 inches. Freshman Nonny Okwelogu was the runner-up in the shot put, while junior Lauren Tauscher took second in the pole vault.

As the Tigers look forward to the Penn-Yale-Princeton meet for the women and the George Mason Invitational for the men next week, they say they are encouraged by their success so far at the start of the outdoor season.

“We know that we’re making good progress, and that we’re fit, we’re fast and we’re healthy,” Cabral said. “We’re firing on all cylinders right now, and it’s looking good.”

Looking past the next month and even the Ivy League Championships, with the performances from the Raleigh Relays and Sam Howell, many of the Princeton athletes have already set themselves up very nicely for a shot to go to the NCAA regional meet in Florida. With top regional marks from the 800m to the 10K, the Tigers are beginning to anticipate seeing how their progress will show on the national scene by the end of the season.

“If everything goes as planned, the amount of people we have going down to Florida for regionals from Princeton is just insane. It’s really exciting,” Arroyo Yamin said. “We’re going to have an army down there.”