Tough Cornell, Princeton Await Track

Those looking for a true battle within the Ancient Eight will be pleasantly surprised as this season’s Heptagonal Championship titles may be up for grabs for a few select teams with the depth to truly compete.

The top contenders for the men’s title will most likely once again be Cornell and Princeton. Last year, the Tigers edged the Big Red out of a win by three points, and this year’s race may be just as close. Princeton is arguably the strongest Ivy distance team, having swept both the men’s and women’s cross-country championship titles this past season. The Tigers are also nationally ranked in three distance events–the mile, the 3000-meter, and the 5000-meter races. Cornell, in turn, boasts a very solid roster of sprinters and jumpers. The Big Red takes the top five spots in league rankings for the 400-meter dash and the top two in the triple jump.

The winner of the men’s championship trophy will likely be the team with the most depth. While both Cornell and Princeton have their strengths, programs like Penn and Harvard have strong athletes in enough events to displace runners. Columbia will even be able to shake up the meet standings with its stacked group of 800-meter runners and the 4x800-meter relay squad. This weekend’s competition will not just account for the efforts of the Tigers and the Big Red, since each runner will have to pick off every athlete standing in between it and its main contender to avoid falling victim to small differences in team scores.

Cornell will most likely pick up the women’s title once again. The Big Red has had a tremendous indoor season, claiming a large number of individual wins and Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships qualifying performances over the last three months. Although Cornell did fall to last year’s indoor track second-place finisher Brown at the Harvard Select Meet in January, the Big Red is currently dominating the women’s Ivy League rankings. Junior Jeomi Maduka tops the standings in three events–the 60-meter dash, the long jump, and the triple jump. Maduka, who is also the leading scorer on the basketball team, has been a consistently solid contributor to Cornell this season and will not disappoint this weekend.

The second place spot is up for grabs. Three teams–Brown, Princeton, and Penn–will most likely be fighting for the silver. The Bears have a fair amount of depth, with highly ranked runners in the 200-meter dash, 3000-meter race, and 4x400-meter relay. The Quakers make their mark in the mid-distance events, calling on nationally ranked senior Jesse Carlin. The Tigers are known for their long-distance prowess and stack the mile, 1000-meter, and 3000-meter events.

Columbia’s role in the women’s competition will likely be minor. This indoor season will most likely not result in a top-three finish for the Lions. While the Light Blue admittedly has some standout athletes like junior sprinter Melissa Ikono and senior miler Carmen Ballard, other teams simply have more. Columbia does not stack events the way that other teams have been able to this season, and while its distance is generally reliable, field events leave much to be desired.