CU track looks to unseat Big Red at Heps

Another season, another Heps. The Light Blue heads to the rural stead of Hanover, N.H. this weekend for the indoor track and field conference championships. Cornell will look to defend titles on both the men’s and women’s sides and continue to dominate the meet that has seen 12 championships between them in the new millennium.

But the Columbia women could be in line to stage an upset this year with a tremendous sprints squad and depth in the distance group. Sophomore Sharay Hale should lead the charge of the former. She will compete in three events over the two-day meet: the 400m—in which she took second last year—the 200m and 4x400m relay. Such is the case for many of women’s sprints, as it will be essential to rack up points in order to defeat the Big Red.

“This meet is not so much about chasing times or great performances,” assistant coach Gavin O’Neal said. “It’s about beating people.”

Thus, many will double and triple in hopes of taking top spots in many events. Hale’s efforts will be accompanied by those of classmates Kyra Caldwell in the 60m hurdles and Monique Roberts in the high jump. The three hold the top marks in their respective specialties and should be able to inflict considerable damage.

Junior Jacqueline Drouin and senior Serita Lachesis will look to score in the mile and 800m, respectively. Drouin is the only woman in the league who has gone sub 4:50 until now, but she’ll see tough competition against Harvard’s Claire Richardson and Yale’s Ariel Wright.

“We have a lot of great young athletes that are going to compete. It’s a very talented class,” assistant coach Jon Clemens said. “But Princeton will be hard to beat in the distance events, as evidenced by their unprecedented sweep of the cross country Heps this fall.”

Middle distance has traditionally been the lifeblood of men’s track, and the situation this year is the same. Senior Mike Mark and junior Matt Stewart should lead the charge in the open 800, and they will look to maintain Columbia’s title in the relay version of that event. Junior Jeff Moriarty is the returning 1k champion and seeks to defend that title this year.

Sophomore sensation Kyle Merber—who has been on fire in his two outings this season­—is giving the 3,000m a go. He will face tough competition as Princeton’s Don Cabral enters this traditionally stacked event with a time of 8:10 to his name. Merber’s times, though, top the list of both the mile and 3k.

More than anything, the team will rely on a sense of camaraderie, elevated this season perhaps at the women’s scintillating prospect to dethrone Cornell.

“There’s been a real unifying atmosphere in general,” assistant coach Zach Richard said. “Finding success on all parts has really brought everyone together.”

Competition gets underway Saturday at 10 a.m., and the women’s 4x400m will close competition at 3:55 Sunday afternoon.