Yale Ruins Weekend For Track Teams

The Harvard men's and women's track teams both came up short this past Saturday at Yale.

The injury-plagued Harvard men managed to ignore the pain and the terrible New Haven spring weather for one afternoon. They put together their best effort of the outdoor season, but it wasn't enough, as the Bulldogs triumphed 84-79.

The Harvard women had even more reason to be disappointed. The 82-72 Yale victory ended the Crimson's 10-year win-streak against the Bulldogs.

Harvard Men

Captain Darren Dinneen has struggled through injuries all season, but on Saturday he proved that he was still the Crimson's top competitor. Dinneen won the 1500 convincingly in 3:55.56 and took a close race in the 800 with a run of 1:54.35.

"I'm not sure how healthy he is, but the team was extremely happy to see him win like he did," junior Arthur Fergusson said.

Dinneen was also part of the winning 4x400 relay team, along with senior Cabral Williams and sophomores Nnamdi Okike and Osahon Omoregie, each of whom scored for Harvard in other events.

Williams won the 400-meter intermediate hurdles with a run of 55.25 seconds. Okike's time of 49.11 seconds placed him second in a close 400 race, just a hundredth of a second back of the winner. Omoregie also placed third in the 200.

Sophomore Kobie Fuller was the Crimson's top sprinter, taking the 100 in 11.24 seconds.

Senior distance runner David Martin also came up big. He won the 3000-meter steeplechase with a 9:19.62 run and placed second in the 5000 with a time of 14:57:00.

Fergusson, dependable as usual, was the Crimson's other two-event winner. He leapt 14.12 meters to win the triple jump, and he won the long jump with a leap of 6.82 meters. Sophomore Kobie Fuller placed second in the triple jump and junior Francis De La Cruz placed third in the long jump, allowing Harvard to dominate the two events.

Sophomore Aaron Snead jumped 15'6 to win the pole vault. Freshman Taylor Buckley cleared the 1.85 meter bar in the fewest attempts to earn a win in the high jump.

The Crimson throwers dominated their competition once again. Junior Chris Clever won the javelin with a throw of 65.68 meters that outdistanced his competition by over 30 feet. Junior John Kraay won the shot put with a 15.86 meter toss, and placed third in the discus.

Chris Cancro and Ian Shelswell earned second-place finishes in the hammer and discuss, respectively.

Despite the loss, the solid performance proved that the team was much better than it had shown in recent meets this year.

"Through our performance yesterday, we regained something we had been missing for a while: the intensity," Fergusson said.

The men's track team will be back in action next Sunday against Boston College in the only home meet of the season.

Harvard Women

Harvard crushed Yale 69-30 in an Indoor tri-meet earlier in the year, and at the Indoor Heps, the Bulldogs finished several places back of the champion Crimson. But nagging injuries made it difficult for the Crimson to overcome the Elis on their home track.

Normally, junior captain Brenda Taylor is counted on to win two or three events for the Crimson, but on this day, with her hamstring questionable, she was limited to the 400-meter intermediate hurdles, which she won convincingly with a time of 59.27 seconds.

"We don't want to push anyone at this point," said sophomore thrower Natalie Grant. "She was really disappointed that she didn't get to run more."

Taylor could have helped in the 100, where Harvard was shut out of the scoring, or the 200, where junior Marna Schutte was beaten by Bulldog Sikira Backus' school-record performance. Schutte managed her usual victory in the 400 with a 55.65 second run.

"We have a lot of injuries right now," Grant said. "While we would have liked to beat Yale for the 11th time in a row, we'd prefer to have everyone stay healthy for the Heps in a few weeks, since that is our championship meet."

One event where Taylor wasn't missed was the 100-meter high hurdles. The Crimson freshman trio of Amanda Shanklin, Helena Ronner and Alayna Miller swept the event. Shanklin won with a time of 14.92 seconds.

The Crimson pulled out all the stops in trying to win this meet. Harvard put Dora Gyorffy in the triple jump, an event she normally only jumps in the Heps. Gyorffy--in her first action with the Crimson during the outdoor season--won the triple jump with 12.15 meters.

In the high jump, her NCAA championship event, Gyorffy won easily with a jump of 1.82 meters. Junior Valerie Dixon placed second.

The other Harvard winners were Bethany Helms, who won the 800 in 2:14.45, and Amy Bei, who won the pole vault with a 10-foot jump. Sophomore Loni Sherwin placed second in the pole vault, giving the Crimson a one-two finish in the event.

The relays were a push. Harvard took the 4x400 relay in 3:51.21, but come up short in the 4x100.

Yale shut Harvard out of any victories in the throws. The Crimson earned second-place finishes in each event--Donielle Colich in the javelin, Sarah Link in the discus, Jill Kornetsky in the shot put and the hammer. Colich was also third in the hammer, and captain Kristy Johnson was third in the shot put.

"It was really close and competitive," Grant said. "It was one of those meets where one person would take the lead, and than another. I was very impressed with the freshmen. Jill and Donielle threw well. Everyone rose to the occasion."

The Crimson women will look to rebound in Sunday's home meet against Boston College. The Outdoor Heptagonals are at Penn beginning May 13th.