John Langhauser ’07 knew that he would face strong weight throw competitors at the Harvard-Yale-Princeton track meet. He also knew that with the Ivy League championship meet just around the corner that he had to seize the time to throw well. What he didn’t know was that by the end of the day he would have set two personal records and would have marked his place in the record books with the third best shot put throw in Yale history.
Langhauser, who finished first in the shot put with 16.77 meters and second in the weight throw with 17.23 meters, was not the only stellar performer on Saturday, though. Numerous Elis stood out on Harvard’s Gordon Track to bring Yale to a 71-point second place finish, barely trailing Princeton (78) and dominating Harvard (20).
“This is the championship part of the season, so it’s always good to perform well,” Langhauser said.
Following that sentiment and setting an early tone for the day, Jared Bell ’09 and Brian Gertzen ’07 took first and second, respectively, in the one-mile run. Bell finished with a time of 4:11.18 and Gertzen closely followed at 4:12.21.
The Bulldogs also swept the 60-meter dash, with all of the sprinters finishing within 0.2 seconds of each other. Victor Cheng ’08 took first in 6.98 seconds, followed by Russell Kempf ’07 in 7.05 seconds and rounded out by Omari Douglas-Hall ’07 in 7.10 seconds.
“Victor Cheng has been performing well all year, but it’s good that Omari and I stepped up to score points for the team that weren’t necessarily guaranteed,” Kempf said.
Also noteworthy was Pat Dantzer’s ’06 finish in the 3000-meter run. His time of 8:09.27 was the fifth-best mark in Yale history.
Jihad Beauchman ’06 finished second in the triple jump with a 14.75-meter effort. In the high jump, Samuel Fox ’09 finished first, jumping 2.01 meters, followed directly by Beauchman (1.96 meters). And thanks to Adam Presser ’06, the Elis also took home a third place finish in the pole vault.
In the long sprints, Bulldogs had strong performances. Kevin Alexander ’06 took first in the 400-meter run, and Shomari Taylor ’06 and Rob deLaski ’06 finished second and third, respectively, in the 500-meter run.
In the 800-meter event, Matt Bordoni ’08 took second in a time of 1:56.95. Mark Falco ’06 and Douglas-Hall finished third in the 1000-meter run and 200-meter dash, respectively. Picking up another second place for the Elis, Dan O’Brien ’08 finished with a time of 8.23 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles.
The Yalies also performed well in the 4 x 400-meter relay. The A relay team finished first, followed less than five seconds later by the third-place Yale B team.
The team hopes to build on this weekend’s results as it shifts its focus to Hepatgonals in two weeks.
“Comparing this meet to last year’s H-Y-P, we’ve come a long way,” Dantzer said. “It’s disappointing when you lose, but it’s a step in the right direction.”