Men, Women Tracksters Defeat Eagles

Harvard track coach Frank Haggerty stood somberly before the men's track team at their first meet of the season on Saturday and predicted a 10-point loss to Boston College.

Harvard's men's track and field team has never lost to Boston College in the history of indoor track. But the head coach's worst-case scenarios are a pre-meet ritual, so the men trowned and feigned concern.

Then the clock struck noon on Saturday, the acting was over and the men ran away with an 85-51 victory, joining the women's team in their 73-45 trouncing of B.C.

The Crimson took only three events to lead the Eagles by 10 points. From there, the event only became more lopsided.

"On paper we've always been really good," senior Co-captain Bryan Henry said. "But we've never really played up to our potential."

Henry certainly played up to his. Running the 800 meters in 1:52, he entered his final season in top form.

Junior Shayne Mauricette's and sophomore lan Carswell also got their winter seasons off to strong starts. The former bolted through the 55-meter dash in 6.3 seconds, while the latter rushed through three kilometers in 8:25.

With key performances from sophomores, juniors and seniors, Senior Co-captain Dan Dusek saw the meet as a springboard to a successful season.

"We've had confidence problems in the past, and it's great that we came together as a team," he said.

Although the women's team emerged as a clear winner, too, it spent half of the match against B.C. in a much closer contest.

With seven of the 14 events completed, the women held a slim 33-30 lead over their cross-town rivals.

Then came the shotput, triple jump, high jump and relay events.

The Crimson took control in those events, finishing the last seven events with 40 points to B.C.'s 12.

Sophomore Ailey Penningroth won both the weight throw and the shotput events. And sophomore Karen Goetze ran an outstanding 5:01 in the mile.

Goetze said the women's cross country team entered the meet feeling "antsy" and self-doubting: after training mainly for endurance, it questioned its speed.

When team members discovered that the B.C. women's cross country team was still recuperating from an appearance at the national championships in Arkansas on November 22, however, they breathed a collective sigh of relief.