Off to the Races

The Harvard men's and women's track and cross country teams enjoyed another banner year, including garnering an individual national championship and a team indoor Heptagonals title on the women's side.

Harvard Women

The highlight of the women's cross country season came at the end of the season when senior Bethany Helms qualified for the NCAAs at the Northeast Regionals. Like Baker, Helms was named a regional All-American for her performance, a ninth-place finish at 17:34. Junior Mary Unsworth finished next for the Crimson with a time of 17:57.

At NCAAs, Helms placed 212th in the pool of 250 for the 5,000-meter race with a time of 18:53.70.

At the New England Championships in mid-October, Harvard had its best race of the season as four runners finished in the top 40 in New England. In the meet against 288 teams from around New England, Helms finished 11th with a personal-best time of 18:00. Right behind her were Unsworth (23rd, 18:13) and sophomore Leann Hymas (24th, 18:14). Freshman Deirdre Colgan (59th, 18:43) also made a strong showing.

At Heptagonals, the Crimson placed a strong fifth, beating both Princeton and Yale.

In the winter, the women's track team went undefeated for the entire season. Junior Dora Gyorffy had an incredible season as she tied the NCAA high jump record with a jump of 1.97 meters at Heptagonals. Two weeks later, she captured the NCAA title with a jump of 1.94 meters, 0.07 meters higher than the next highest jumper.

Junior captain Brenda Taylor and junior Marna Schutte proved to be consistent for the team all season in the 400 meters. Taylor also dominated the shorted sprinting events.

The team accomplished its ultimate goal in winning the Heptagonal Championships for the first time since 1990.

Depsite losing to Yale for the first time in 10 years, Harvard's outdoor season was successful in other ways. It sent three hurdlers to the Penn Relays this spring. Taylor finished fifth in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles with a time of 58:91, while sophomore Carrie McGraw finished 21st with a time of 1:02.38 and freshman Amanda Shanklin placed 26th with 1:03.16.

Harvard finished third at Heptagonals, and despite not finishing as high as the team would have hoped, there were a few individual success stories, as Taylor shone in all the events she participated in. Taylor's 4x100 relay team beat Harvard's 10-year record with a time of 46.81. Taylor also beat the school record that she had previously set in April for the 100-meter high hurdles with a time of 17.71. In her third event of the meet, Taylor became the first Crimson woman ever to break the 12-second mark for the 100-meter sprint with her time of 11.97. Junior Marna Schutte was also successful as she won the 400 meters in a personal-best time of 54:54.

Gyorffy and Taylor earned the right to compete in the NCAAs for Harvard.

The Crimson will be represented internationally this summer as Taylor qualified for the Olympic Trials with her 1999 ECAC performance, and Gyorffy will compete for Hungary this summer at the Olympics.

Schutte and Taylor will be the team captains next year.

Harvard Men

While some teams' season begin on a bang, the men's cross country season ended on one.

Junior captain Ed Baker and senior Dave Martin led the men's cross country team this past fall.

At the last and most successful meet of the season, the Northeast Regional Championships, Baker qualified for the NCAA meet with his 30:21 ninth-place finish against runners from all over New England. He was also named a regional All-American for his run. Martin also managed an impressive performance in that meet, with his 18th-place time of 30:41.

At the NCAA Championships, Baker managed to finish ahead of 100 other runners, but he ended up in 148th place for the 10,000-meter race with a time of 32:40.40. Still, the season turned out to be a success, as Baker's qualifying for NCAAs exceeded most people's preseason expectations.

In other season meets, the cross country team placed ninth out of 39 at the Heptagonal Championships.

While the indoor track season was disappointing for an injury-ridden Harvard, which suffered a season-culminating ninth-place finish at Heptagonals.

In the outdoor season, juniors Chris Clever, John Kraay and Arthur Fergusson were the most reliable performers for Harvard.

At Heptagonals, Clever won the javelin competition for his second-straight league title, and Kraay earned second place in the shot put. Fergusson placed second in the triple jump.

Senior Darren Dinneen was hindered by injuries all season, but in a losing meet to Yale (84-79) still came out to show that he was one of the Crimson's top runners. He won the 1500-meter run (3:55.56) and 800-meter run (1:54.35). Dinneen and Clever earned trips to the NCAAs for the Crimson.