Championships Central | Women's Preview
PRINCETON, N.J. -- The Ivy League Heptagonal Outdoor Track & Field Championships return to Princeton’s Weaver Stadium for the first time since 2016, as the Ancient Eight will gather to compete for the 2019 Ivy Heps titles. Both days of the championships will be broadcast live on
ESPN+ beginning at 1 p.m. on each day. 2016 Rio Olympics broadcaster
Bill Spaulding and Princeton alum and former Cornell coach
Robert Johnson will be on the call.
Princeton looks to three-peat and claim its second-straight triple crown, as the Tigers have also won the Ivy Heps cross country and indoor championships this season. Penn has been climbing steadily up the standings the past six seasons, from seventh in 2013, to fourth in 2014, third in 2015, 2016 and 2017 and second a season ago.
The last time Ivy Heps took place in Princeton, Cornell became the first team to surpass 200 points, setting an all-time Ivy League record with 211, to run away with the championship in 2016.
A total of 19 Ivy League athletes have posted marks that rank among the top-30 in their respective events so far this season. Princeton is led by four such athletes, highlighted by the defending hammer throw champion Adam Kelly at No. 8 in his signature event and junior Jesse Thibodeau at No. 10 in the long jump. Kelly is coming off of a national runner-up performance in the NCAA Indoor Championships in the weight throw.
But the Tigers will have to get past the rest of the League, including Harvard and Penn, which have both seen five athletes post marks that are ranked among the top-30 nationally. The Crimson will be led by junior Kieran Tuntivate, who already has three Ivy Heps titles this academic year, having claimed the cross country individual title as well as the 3K and 5K titles at the indoor championships. Tuntivate ran the 10K in 28:45.61 at the Raleigh Relays; that time ranks 14th in the country so far this season and fourth all-time in Ivy League history.
Penn will be led by, among others, freshman Marc Minichello, whose javelin throw of 237-8 ranks seventh in the nation. The Daly brothers Colin (27th) and William (28th) also rank in the top-30 in the steeplechase, along with Harvard junior Will Battershill (24th) and Princeton sophomore Ed Trippas (25th).
Harvard senior Myles Marshall, ranked 28th in the nation in the 800m, looks to claim his second title in the event and first since 2017, but will have to hold off Columbia senior Alek Sauer, who is 27th in the nation.
The pole vault should also prove to be an exciting event on Saturday, including three Ivies who rank among the top-30 in the nation in Harvard sophomore Erick Duffy (13th), Yale senior Austin Laut (23rd) and Penn junior Sean Clarke (28th). Sunday’s field events feature the triple jump, highlighted by Columbia junior Daniel Igbokwe and Cornell senior Oseoba Airewele, who rank 18th and 28th in the nation, respectively.
Dartmouth senior Benjamin Ose looks to become the first back-to-back winner of the decathlon since former Brown standout and current Olympic bobsledder Evan Weinstock in 2013-14. Ose’s top score of 7,498 this season ranks 13th nationally and seventh all-time in Ivy League history.