Track Teams Crush Eagles in Opening Meet

The Harvard men's and women's track and field teams began their seasons with strong wins against Boston College on Saturday at the Gordon Track and Tennis Center.

Junior Ed Baker paced the Harvard men with a dominant performance in the mile, as the Crimson men won 99-36 and lost only three events at the meet. Junior co-captain Brenda Taylor blazed the way for the Harvard women by winning all three events she entered in the Crimson's 89-47 over the Eagles.

Harvard Men

The Harvard men dominated the short distance events on the contributions from young runners.

Sophomores Kobie Fuller (49.0 seconds) and Osahon Omoregie (1:04.5) won the 400 and 500-meter runs, respectively. Sophomore Nnamdi Okike placed a close second in the 400-meter run with 49.9. Omoregie (22.5) and Fuller (22.6) also took first and second places in the 200-meter dash.

Harvard took the top three spots in the 60-meter dash, with junior Okechukwu Nwokocha (6.9) sophomores Daniel Miree (7.0) and Samuel Hornblower placing first, second and third respectively.

The freshmen made big contributions at longer distances. In their first collegiate performances, Christopher Antunes and John Traugott shined for Harvard in the middle-distance events. Antunes finished first in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:58.3, and Traugott won the 1000-meter run in 2:34.2.

"I was a bit nervous," Traugott said. "But I think it was more of a positive nervous energy which I was able to channel into running the race, since I was really pumped up to run in my first collegiate track meet."

Antunes seemed to forget the pressure once his race began.

"I was a little nervous before the race because I wasn't sure what to expect," Antunes said. "But the race itself was just a normal 800 meter race. I was really happy to win."

In the distance events, veteran runners continued to pace Harvard. Junior Ed Baker won the mile run in 4:14.1. And, in the last men's event of the meet, Baker helped the Crimson blow away the Eagles in the two-mile relay by 10 seconds. The Crimson finished in 8:09.9 to B.C.'s 8:19.9.

Harvard won all but one of the field events. In the shot put, freshman D.J. Patterson won with a distance of 48'10". Seniors William Ratcliffe (45'1/4") and Christopher Canero (41'3") took second and third on the event.

In the triple jump, juniors Arthur Fergusson placed first (14.19 meters)

and Francis De La Cruz took second (13.26 m).

Even though the competition was pretty relaxed, the team made a statement in the first meet of the season and its most important one before winter break.

"This is a pretty low-key meet," senior runner Dave Martin said. "A lot of kids are having their first college races."

"I'm looking forward to a great season because I believe that we have a very strong and cool team that makes it fun to run," Traugott said.

Harvard Women

Taylor led the way for the Harvard women, taking first place in the 60-meter hurdles (8.5), 500-meter run (1:14.0), and 200-meter dash (24.9).

"I am happy with my performance," Taylor said. "It was ok for the beginning of the season."

Junior Mary Unsworth made her mile run victory look easy as she outpaced the next runner by more than eight seconds in a time of 4:53.9. B.C.'s Maggie Gulney was the closest in the field at 5:02.0.

"Mary opened up the season in spectacular form," Coach Frank Haggerty said. "She is going to have a very good season, I predict. She is very focused and in the best shape of her life at this time of year."

Harvard dominated the 400-meter run, with sophomore Carrie McGraw (58.5) and freshman Amanda Shanklin (59.6) taking first and second places.

Freshmen thrower Jill Kornetsky had an exceptional collegiate debut, winning both the 20-pound-weight throw (13.31m) and the shot put (13.2 m).

Junior Dora Gyorffy, who normally enters the high jump, competed in the triple jump Saturday but still managed to win the event (12.41 m).

"I am happy with the team's performance," Taylor said. "These results were good season starters for us relevant to last year."

In particular, like the freshmen on the men's team, the freshmen women contributed significantly to Harvard's success.

"The freshmen look great," Taylor said. "They are starting to do what we expect them to do."