Cross Country Splits Weekend

Franklin Park in Boston was not friendly to the host runners last weekend.

The Harvard cross country team crossed the Charles River on Saturday and easily disposed of Northeastern in the Huskies' own city, with the men winning, 20-41, and the women claiming a 15-46 victory. But the Crimson, which also considers Franklin Park as its home turf, felt the host's burden in simultaneous dual meets against Brown, which the Bears won on both the men's side, 23-38, and the women's side, 15-46. The tri-meet was scored as a double dual meet, with the times measured between teams, and not among the entire field.

For the men, sophomore Nathan Schenk-Boright challenged Brown freshman Mat Emond until the final 800 meters, when Emond charged ahead and finished six seconds faster than Schenk-Boright's time of 25:04 to win the race.

Nine seconds later, Harvard captain Eddie Baker crossed the finish line to win third place in his first race of the season. Baker left the season-opening Fordham Invitational a week earlier with a calf problem 3.5 miles into the race.

"I had to drop out of the Fordham race because of my legs, but they felt much better this weekend," Baker said yesterday after returning from a two-hour run to Walden Pond in Concord. "On Saturday I stayed with the pack at the beginning and then picked up speed to pass a couple of Brown runners and finish behind Nathan."

Besides Schenk-Boright and Baker, however, Brown dominated the race. The Bears had nine of the top 11 times while Harvard's third-fastest runner, sophomore Simon Holmes, came in 13th place with a time of 26:14.

Junior Leann Hymas was the fastest Harvard woman on Saturday, finishing eighth with a time of just under 19 minutes. Senior Becky Gogel came in 12th at 19:15, while Brown grabbed 10 of the top 12 times.

Harvard now has two weeks to get ready for its next competition at Iona Sept. 30. Today is also the first day of practice for freshmen runners. Baker said he expects 10 rookies to join the men's squad this week, expanding the Crimson roster to 25 runners.

But Baker is also keeping his eye on the broader picture, which includes a home meet against Yale and Princeton before the Heptagonal and NCAA Championships in October and November.

"We still have a lot of time left before the important meets at the end of the season," Baker said. "Now that the freshmen can start running everyone will be putting in a lot of mileage and I think we will continue to improve."