W. X-Country Fifth, Men Ninth at Heps

Despite strong performances from each squad's top runner, the Harvard men's and women's cross-country teams had a tough time at the Heptagonal Championships on Friday.

The meet, which fields the eight Ivy League schools and Navy and consists of 80 runners in the men's and women's races, took place at Van Cortland Park in the Bronx. It serves as the final tune-up for both teams before NCAA Regionals, which is the qualifying round for the NCAA Championship in Indiana later, at Franklin Park on November 13th.

Seniors Bethany Helms (5th, 18:14.7) and Dave Martin (6th, 25:05.8) provided the only bright spots for the Crimson, turning in the best finishes by individual Harvard men and women since 1995. But, altogether the teams ran less well than their top finishers did. The Harvard women finished fifth out of nine teams, its highest finish in recent years, and the men ninth of nine.

Harvard women

The Harvard women (130 points) beat Princeton (sixth place, 132) and Yale (seventh place, 165), two teams who beat the Crimson at the Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet earlier in the season.

Helms continues to run spectacularly for the Crimson. She placed 11th out of a field of 250 at the New England Championships two weeks ago, and she has been running well all season.

This week, Helms set a personal-best time for the course, beating her previous best by more than ten seconds. Her fifth-place finish earned her a spot on the All-Ivy team, an honor bestowed on the top twelve finishers.

In the last half-mile of the race, Helms initiated a strong kick that pushed her from 15th to fifth.

Overall, however, Harvard was disappointed by its performance at Heps. The fifth-place finish put Harvard behind Brown (first, 36), Cornell (second, 71), Columbia (third, 81) and Dartmouth (fourth, 111).

While Helms ran an impressive race, Harvard's next runners placed 21st and 27th, and the team members think they should have done better than they did.

Sophomore Leann Hymas (18:45.9), who finished 24th in all of New England two weeks ago, took 21st place on Friday in the much smaller field of runners. Right behind her, sophomore Mary Unsworth (18:54.6) finished 27th.

Harvard has been working on narrowing the gap between its lead runner and the next bunch of runners, but, though running in a tight pack at New Englands, it failed to do so on Friday.

The team is looking to improve its performance at NCAAs, and despite Helms' successful race Friday, she has decided not to enjoy her exceptional performance for too long.

"I know I can run better," Helms said, "so I'm not looking at Heps as some sort of culmination point but looking forward to Regionals as a realistic opportunity to go to Nationals."

Indeed, the team plans to work hard in the coming weeks to ensure a respectable performance at NCAAs by trying to run in a tight pack so that more individuals, and perhaps the team, will have a chance at qualifying for Nationals.

"With two more weeks of tapering," Helms said, "we should be in even better shape for NCAA Regionals."

Harvard Men

The Harvard men ran below their expectations Friday to finish behind the rest of the Ivy League.

Martin, who, along with junior captain Ed Baker, has led Harvard this season, ran tremendously. His sixth-place finish, which earned him, like Helms, an All-Ivy League spot, was Harvard's only top-25 individual finish.

Martin benefited from seeing Helms do so well in her race, which took place right before his. Martin and Helms both rely on maintaining position near the back of the front pack of runners for most of the race and then moving up to the very front late in a race.

"Bethany Helms had a great performance, and actually gave me a lot of confidence going into my race," Martin said. "Seeing her run successfully calmed me down a lot before my race and got me focused… there was no way I could let her show me up!"

Baker, who had taken much of the previous week off from training due to calf problems, placed 30th at 26:07.6. He has consistently finished up near Martin in races this season, so this was a slow race for Baker.

Sophomore John Friedman (49th, 26:39.3) and freshman Nathan Shenk-Borig (50th, 26:45.2) were the next Harvard finishers.

In the next two weeks, with NCAA Regionals in sight, Harvard will be focusing on getting its second, third and fourth runners closer to Martin.

And, like Helms, Martin himself will not let down in light of his good race Friday.

"It's always nice to get recognition and a shiny medal and all that other bull," Martin said. "But this season is far from over and I'm not about to rest on any laurels that I may or may not have."

Good is not good enough for Martin.

"My goal is not to make it to Nationals at the Region 1 meet," Martin said. "My goal is to place high there and it just happens that a consequence of placing high is a trip to the NCAAs in Indiana. The kids who line up at Regionals and worry about making it to the Big Show are the ones who are going to choke. The kids who focus on putting themselves in good position, racing hard, and finishing strong are the ones getting on a plane the next week. The other kids get a one-way ticket to the Smack Down Hotel."