Heps Bring Mixed Results for Track

Things could have been worse for the Harvard men's and women's track teams at the Heptagonal Games Association Indoor Track Meet at Navy this weekend than a ninth- and fifth-place finish, respectively.

Just ask Columbia. Both its men's and women's teams finished dead last--really dead, with just 3.5 team points between them.

Compared to that, the Harvard women's fifth-place finish (with 33.5 points) and the men's ninth-place finish (with 42 points) was Olympian.

But without the Columbia lens, it wasn't quite what the Harvard teams had hoped for.

"We were all really disappointed because we didn't do as well as we wanted," said freshman Amanda Williams, who set a personal record of :57.09 as the anchor of the women's mile relay.

Top Heps honors went to the Brown women, who set a Heps record for most team points with 156, and to the Navy men, who ran away from Army, 128.3 to 82.

The Harvard men were ranked as high as fifth in the first day of the meet, but they lost points in key areas onthe second day--especially the field competitions.

"The team has some problems since we have very few vaulters and jumpers," sophomore Brian Henry said. "Once you lose the points in the field, it's hard to finish in the top half."

The women have almost the reverse problem. While they have depth, they lack experience.

"Our team is really young and we need some time to mature and grow," Williams said. "Brown did well because they're so experienced. They were shouting "93!' during the races because they're almost all seniors. They may be really psyched now, but we'll be back."

Junior Captain Alexia Cruz was also optimistic about her team's performance.

"We're really pleased because we had one individual in every final and two in the 55-meter dash," Cruz said.

Despite the Crimson's heavy representation in the finals, the women couldn't bring home any first or second place finishes.

Lucky Blue for Men

The men had better luck with the blue ribbons, but not much better: Henry took the only first place for Harvard with his 1:51.82 finish in the men's 800-meter dash.

"We knew [Brian] would run well even though he was injured a couple weeks ago," Co-Captain Bill Doyle said. "He really came through in the clutch."

Co-Captain Bill Bland also performed well, finishing second in the mile.