W. Track Sweeps Princeton, Yale; Men's Thinclads Split

It was business as usual Saturday for the women's track team at Gordon Track and Tennis Center.

Again.

Fueled by two wins each by Karen Goetze, Heather McLennan and Amanda Williams, Harvard destroyed Princeton and Yale. The Crimson registered 91 points, while the Tigers and the Bulldogs could muster only 41 and 16 points, respectively.

After Heather McLennan took first (5:35) in the long jump and Ailey Penningroth placed second (13.69 meters) in the 35 point weight throw, the Crimson ripped off an impressive spree of first places.

All told, Harvard compiled nine straight first places, running the gamut of events. The Crimson took first in the mile, the hurdles, the shot out, the triple and high jumps, and the 400, 800, 200 and 55 meter dash.

With Harvard sitting on a comfortable 46-point lead, the meet was over.

"We're really coming together," Goetze said. "I haven't felt such strong team spirit yet this season. We are becoming more cohesive and more unified. It's very good sign."

Goetze was her usual phenomenal self, blowing away the field in both the mile (5:03.93) and then the 800 (2:13.37) meter, an impressive and difficult accomplishment in the same meet. Along with senior Jen Kearney (2:16.28), Goetze relegated last year's HEPS 800 meter winner, Tonia Baker (2:17.30), to third place.

On top of that, the sophomore also added a leg to the winning 4x400 relay team.

Not wanting to be outdone by Goetze, the trackster's class of 1996 also got into the act. Williams anchored the 4x400 and took first in the 200 (25.32) and 400 meter (56.97) dashes. McLennan outdid her opponents in the triple (11.39 meters) and the long jump, and Stacey Barber (5'6") placed first in the high jump.

"It was a great day for the class of 1996," Williams said. "We could have beat Yale by ourselves."

"Other than Hetps this is the high points of the season," said Meredith Fitzgerald, who placed fifth in the 3000 meter in 10:18.40. "It was nice to see so many strong performances across the board.

Speaking of the Heptagonals, the women will use the Harvard Open this Friday as one last tuneup before the season's seminal meet the weekend after next.

According to Goetze, Cornell, a team the Crimson lost to by 12 points earlier this season, and Brown should be the Crimson's major obstacles.

"I am hoping that those 12 points Cornell scored will get distributed across other teams at Heps," Goetze said.

Men Not So Lucky

Although there were some bright spots, the weekend was mostly filled with disappointment for the Harvard men's track team.

The Crimson (50 points) placed second, upstaged by surprisingly strong Princeton (85 points) and unsurprisingly weak Yale (35 points) at Gordon.

That difference may be due to the loss of perennial point-getter Shayne Mauricette, who continually racks up first place finishes in the 200 and 55 meter races. Mauricette has battled migraine headaches for the entire year.

"Shayne had terrible migraine headaches all of first semester," said sophomore Ian Carswell, who won the 3000 meter in 8:20.96. "He is taking the whole semester off because the headaches have just gotten too unmanageable."

Despite the dismal final score, junior Darin Shearer picked up right where he left off last week. Shearer (2:27.96), who is a Crimson editor, continues to impress in the 1000 meter, clocking in at a full two seconds of his closest competitor.

"Darin is, as usual, amazing," Carswell gushed. "He does thing out there that most people on the track don't have the guts to do. You just have to respect what he's done for us all season.

"Darin is not afraid to throw it down at any time. He'll race anyone. He won't only run the race, he'll run it to win it every time," he said.

Bryan Henry (1:51.88) turned in the inspirational performance of the day in the 800 meter. Henry trailed with a 100 meters to go, pulled even by 50 meters left and passed a Princeton runner to take the lead with a scant 25 meters to go in the race.

"The person he was running against was really strong," Carswell said. "It was right down to the wire."

Even with the loss of Mauricette and the "waxing" (in the words of Carswell) of the Crimson, the outlook for the Heptagonals is still good.

"The points Princeton got yesterday will be tougher for them to get at Heps," Carswell said. "They beat us in depth, basically. And that won't help them at Heps."