Women Ready to Tackle Indoor Heps This Weekend at Harvard

HANOVER, N.H. – The pressure felt by Dartmouth's distance runners in the past should be lifted. The emergence of several top-flight sprinters, throwers and jumpers should help alleviate the burden placed on the shoulders of the distance group to carry the Big Green at championship meets.

That's at least the thought process of The Marjorie and Herbert Chase '30 Head Coach of Women's Track and Field Sandy Ford-Centonze as the 2015 Ivy League Heptagonal Championship Meet approaches.

This weekend, Ford-Centonze and her team will head to Harvard and the Albert H. Gordon Track seeking the program's first team title since the event began in 1981.

It will be hard to top the 2014 meet in Hanover for the Green, who finished second in the standings for their best finish at the event in 18 years. Dartmouth's 102 points over the two days inside Leverone were also a program record for an indoor championship.

Look for strong showings from juniors Jennifer Meech and Dana Giordano, who both won individual events last season. Giordano won the 3000m title in exciting fashion and, after a strong cross country and indoor season to this point, looks to repeat again this weekend.

Meech knocked off Columbia's Marvellous Iheukwumere in the 200m finals to win the 2014 crown. Iheukwumere (24.72) has won the previous two indoor titles at that distance, but was edged by Meech (24.66) in the other heat and allowed the then-Dartmouth sophomore to win in front of her home crowd.

Kaitlin Whitehorn won the high jump as a freshman, but finished out of the scoring last season. This year, she has been outstanding in the event, setting a new school record two weeks ago at BU. A renewed internal drive this season should see Whitehorn make a push to once again stand atop the podium.

Both running and field events are slated to begin at 11 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Sunday's finals will be carried live on the Ivy League Digital Network for subscribers beginning at noon and continuing through the completion of the awards ceremony.

Fans looking to follow all the action on social media are encouraged to use #IvyHeps to stay connected with the conversation.

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