Tracking Championships

The Ivy League men's and women's Indoor Heps championships were held at Dartmouth this past weekend, and they were not without drama.

 And the winner of the women's weight throw, as well as the Outstanding Field Athlete of the Meet, is named ... Ratcliffe?

Wait. That's familiar.

And Ratcliffe is from Down Under? Again, familiar.

As far as TigerBlog can tell, Harvard's Stephanie Ratcliffe isn't related to Princeton's legendary Julia Ratcliffe. It's a pretty American point of view to think that might be the case, simply because they have the same last name, compete in similar events and are from the same area of the world. 

Actually, Princeton's Ratcliffe is from Hamilton, New Zealand, and Harvard's Ratcliffe is from Melbourne, Australia, which are separated by nearly 1,700 miles. That's like having two athletes with the same last name in the same event, with one in New York and the other in Denver and figuring they're related. 

Anyway, Harvard's Ratcliffe hasn't thrown the hammer outdoors yet, at least not in college. It'll be interesting to see how her throws this spring compare to Princeton's Ratcliffe, the 2014 NCAA champion and 2021 Olympian.

The Princeton women came in second at the Heps this weekend at Dartmouth while having five individual winners. Alexandra Kelly won the triple jump and the long jump, which is pretty good for the first Heps of your freshman year. 

Her classmate Tessa Mudd won the pole vault and set a meet record in the process at 13-7. Madeleine Wood, a sophomore, won the high jump, and Princeton's Distance Medley Relay team of Maddie Liebich, Stella Vieth, Maddie Cramer and India Weir also won. Liebich and Cramer, by the way, are also freshmen. 

Then there was the men's meet. This was just a bit of craziness.

Princeton won its eighth straight Heps indoor championship, outlasting Harvard by a single point, 164-163 (sounds a bit like the Kings-Clippers game last week). Princeton won the meet by taking the 4x800 relay (Jordan Kaplan, Ethan Reese, Connor Chen, Sam Rodman) by more than a second over Cornell. Harvard came in seventh in the event after dropping the baton on an exchange, which helped the Tigers come away with the title.

Nothing Beats that Championship Feeling!!!

Congratulations to the 2023 Princeton Men's Track & Field Team for winning this years' Indoor Ivy League Championships!#IvyHeps | #GoTigers pic.twitter.com/SAa0QzyCgs

— Princeton Track/XC (@PrincetonTrack) February 26, 2023

The championship was the 24th indoors for the Tigers. Fred Samara? He now has been the Princeton head coach for 51 Heps championships. It's going to be a while until someone matches that number.

Princeton was missing several key athletes who would have scored points. Included in that group was pole vaulter Simen Guttormsen, who would have almost surely finished first or second had he not been hurt.

His older brother Sondre set a meet record of 18-8 1/4, topping the rest of the field by just about a foot and a half. In fact, somewhat stunningly, Sondre didn't attempt a jump until every other competitor except one had finished. Once he cleared that height and the last remaining opponent missed three times, securing the win, he then raised the bar seven inches for his next attempt.

Greg Foster, yet another Princeton track and field freshman, set a meet record with in the long jump of 25-9 1/2 feet. Princeton also had wins by Rodman in the 1,000 meters, Phil Kastner in the Heptathlon, Daniel Duncan in the 60 meter dash and Duncan Miller in the mile.

If you were following along on Twitter, then you saw some great championship graphics that kept someone busy. It was the good kind of busy.

It's always fascinated TigerBlog that track and field can be such an individual endeavor, and yet it makes for such a great team sport as well. If you've ever been to a Heps event you know what he's talking about. 

First, it's not just the winners who make the team win a championship. When a meet is decided by a single point, every placing is critical and depth is a necessity. 

Second, there is such a great camaraderie among track and field teammates. Perhaps it's because they share such a strong individual commitment to being the best they can be.

It's a long ride back from Dartmouth to Princeton. TB senses for the Princeton track and field teams, it seemed a little shorter than it actually was.