On this day 78 years ago, Alfred Van Ranst ’35 finished 3rd in the shot put at the Ivy League Track & Field Championships.

With a heave of 46′ 3.5″, the Cornell junior took the bronze in the 4th Annual Heps Games. His finish helped Cornell finish runner-up to Princeton for the team title. At the end of the season he was selected as part of the combined Princeton-Cornell track team that competed against an Oxford-Cambridge squad in England that summer. In 1939 he reset the Big Red’s indoor shot put record.

Van Ranst was later inducted into the Cornell Athletic Hall of Fame in 1987 as a two-sport standout. Along with his throwing prowess, he was a captain and All-American for the Big Red football team.

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1938 Heps Shot Put Finals

1.	Frank Ryan	Columbia	50′ 9.25″
2.	George Downing	Harvard	48′ 7″
3.	Alfred Van Ranst	Cornell	46′ 3.5″
4.	Murray Oguss	Columbia	45′ 4.5″
5.	Grandin Wise	Princeton	45′ 3.25″