CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The Yale Bulldogs took on rivals Harvard and Princeton on Saturday in the annual HYP meet, at Harvard's Gordon Track. The Bulldogs finished the day third in the team standings, buoyed in particular by standout performances in the throwing events from the ever-impressive Matt Appel.
It was in the throws that the competition kicked off, with Appel setting the tone for Yale with a pair of second-place finishes in the weight throw and the shot put. In both events he threw significantly further than he did last week against Dartmouth and Columbia, registering marks of 18.23m in the weight throw and 17.89m in the shot put. Appel's continued progression bodes well with the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships just one month away. He was pushed hard by his teammates Saturday, though, with first year Nolan Recker impressing with a 17.95m distance for third in the weight throw and 14.83m for eighth in the shot put. Those performances were backed up by a pair of fifth places from fellow first year Jake Sun in the weight throw (16.46m) and Chris Ward in the shot put (15.95m PR). In the same week as throws' coach Duke Taylor's birthday, the distances achieved by the team today are testament to a considerable improvement in the status of Yale's throwing under his tutelage. Elsewhere in the field events, first year Brian Di Bassinga continued to impress with a third-place finish in the triple jump thanks to a 14.52m leap. In the long jump, sophomore Cristian Pereira jumped a PR of 6.49m to place sixth, just behind Odera Nweke in fifth with 6.59m.
On the track, sophomore Aaron Miller led the way for the Bulldogs, running 48.56 to place second in his first 400m effort of the year. Yale had a plethora of athletes competing in the 60m, with sophomore Jacob Kao dipping under 7 seconds with a 6.96 finish. Behind him, Andrew Farr, James Grindle, Mason Evans and Justin Yazdi all ran 7.10 or faster to demonstrate remarkable depth. Kao also led the Bulldogs home in the 200m with a 21.94 clocking ahead of Grindle in 22.07, Farr in 22.21 and Jeamy Williams 22.61. Over the middle distance, Drake Prince ran a 1:52.57 in his first 800 of the season for fifth place, while Calvin Katz, Winslow Atkeson and Tanish Chettiar all impressed in the 1000m with times of 2:24.74, 2:25.18, and 2:29.20. First year Braden King showed a phenomenal closing kick in the mile to finish fourth in 4:12.06 ahead of teammate Liam Garrett in fifth with 4:14.08. The Bulldogs also took fourth, fifth and sixth places in the 3000m thanks to Varun Oberai, Sean Kay and Cade Brown running times of 8:16.78, 8:24.34 and 8:28.13 respectively.
Yale finished the day by placing second and third in the 4x880 yards and third in the 4x440 yards. The relay distances are unique in that they were each 16 and 8 perfect laps of Harvard's indoor track, which is 220 yards in length (201.68 meters) rather than than the usual 200m length. Both were close races, and completed the day of racing on a high. Princeton won the meet with 159 points, while Harvard was second (107) and Yale was third (70).
Some of the Bulldogs will be back in action next Friday at the very same track for the Crimson Elite meet, with others competing at the Scarlet & White Invitational in Boston on Saturday and yet others taking a week away from competition before the David Hemery Valentine Invitational the following weekend.
