W. Track Shoots For Qualifications

With few individual victories for the Harvard women's track team this past weekend, the performance was "a little disappointing," co-captain Amanda Williams said.

The Crimson was hoping for better individual qualifying marks with the season ending Heptagonals Championships at Dartmouth three weeks away. This is important as the seeding for the Heps are decided by the season's best performances. Theoretically, the better one does before the Championships the easier the passage towards the medals rostrum.

Wins by the ever-reliable junior Karen Goetze in the 800 meter (2:12:33) and the increasingly consistent one-mile relay team (3:53:95) provided the highlights of this non-scored meet contested against Boston College, Boston University and Northeastern.

The Beanpot teams gave the women some non-Ivy League competition prior to next week's important clash with Yale and Princeton.

Without scoring, the athletes were given an opportunity to experiment with new tactics or new techniques. The pressure for team success was off, allowing everyone to try something new without fear of being responsible for dropping crucial points.

While this opportunity was indeed taken by a few, Williams speculated that team motivation may have suffered slightly as a result.

Among the better individual performances in what Williams described as a "painfully average team performance" were the personal best times set by senior Natalie Campbell with 7.45 in the 55 meter dash, sophomore Jenny Berrien with 8.59 in the 55 meter hurdles, sophomore Margaret Angell with 2:16.54 in the 800 meter and freshman Margaret Schotte with 5:02.87 in the mile.

While the overall performance may have been disappointing, Williams stated that if the team was going to have an "off" weekend then this was the perfect time.

Next weekend's visit to Princeton will give the team one last opportunity to compete against Ivy League opposition and gain those all important qualifying times before the Heptagonals (Ivy Championship) at the end of the month.

Williams said she was very confident that this year's outcome would mirror that of twelve months ago when the Harvard women "crushed them." With Ivy League athletes once again providing the opposition, the question of motivation will not be an issue.

One can hope that many more best performances will be established by team members, justifying the confidence that Williams obviously has in the team.