W. Track Sweeps Top Competition, M. Track Splits

Last Saturday at Gordon, the Harvard women's track team won its biggest meet of the season thus far by the slimmest of margins.

The Crimson racked up 57 points to edge out Cornell's final tally of 55 and arch-rival Brown's 47. In such a close meet, every top-four finish in the meet's 15 events--eight of which were won by Harvard--became crucial. Co-captain Brenda Taylor led the way with three individual wins and a blinding second leg of the meet-clinching mile relay.

The tri-meet featured the top three teams from last year's Indoor Heptagonals, although each team was missing key personnel this time around. Nevertheless, Harvard's victory bodes well for its prospect of defending its league championship when it hosts the 2001 Indoor Heps in late February.

On the men's side of the action, Cornell took first with 63.5 points to beat out Harvard's total of 55.5, while Brown placed last with 51. The Crimson's wins came from the two-mile relay team, co-captain John Kraay in shot put, senior Chuck Nwokocha in the 60-meter dash, and freshman Tekky Andrew-Jaja in the triple jump.

Harvard Women

With the mile and two-mile relay events left to go, Harvard led Cornell by a slim 52-50 margin, but the Crimson had every reason to expect that its Ivy-best mile relay team would come through.

After taking the baton from sophomore Ashley Furst, Taylor exploded around the first turn and buried her competitors, leaving them at least 50 meters behind.

"It had been a long day for me, and I needed some motivation for the last race," Taylor said. "I found out the score from our coaches, so I knew it was going to come down to the relays. Ashley Furst totally picked up the slack for us in the beginning."

Co-captain Marna Schutte and sophomore Amanda Shanklin ran the final two legs to finish in 3:49.90, as Harvard became the first Ivy team to crack the 3:50 mark this season. Since Cornell placed last in the event, the relay win clinched the meet for Harvard.

The third-place showing by Brown, the defending Outdoor Heptagonal champions, was due in large part to the absence of Bear tri-captain Lindsay Taylor, Brenda's twin sister who is just as versatile when healthy.

"It was a big time letdown when she showed up in regular clothes," Taylor said. "[Running against Lindsay] was one of my main motivations today. We look forward to this meet, since we always PR against each other. I guess we'll have to save it all for Heps."

Taylor won the 60-meter high hurdles comfortably in 8.57 seconds, but faced tougher competition in the sprints. In the 60-meter dash, Taylor narrowly beat out Cornell sophomore Skye Jay who finished just three-hundredths of a second off Taylor's winning time of 7.71. The pair would match up again in the 200, but Taylor won easily in a season-best 24.44 seconds, while Jay finished over a half-second back.

"It was fun to have the competition close," Taylor said. "[Jay] looked good, and that's a positive for us, because if Cornell has good sprinters it'll take points away from Brown, who should be our toughest competition at Heps."

The Crimson got a big performance from sophomore Melissa Tanner, who won the 3000 convincingly in 10:15.39. Last year, Harvard was hard-pressed to get any scoring from any of its distance runners, but Tanner is beginning to change that.

"Not only did she have a phenomenal meet on Saturday, but she also ran the 5000 on Friday at the Terrier Classic and PRd there too," Taylor said. "She's just been stepping it up and training consistently, and we're all highly impressed. She was our team's athlete of the week against Northeastern and she may be again this week."

Schutte placed fourth in the 200, and put together her usual impressive performance in the 400. Cornell and Brown's best were no match for her as she won easily with a season-best mark of 56.17 seconds. Shanklin finished fourth in the event. Furst placed fourth in the 800-meter run to round out the Harvard scoring on the track.

In the weight throw, junior Nicky Grant won easily with a 17.31-meter toss. As of last week, no one else in the Ivies had broken 17 meters this season--Grant has now done it three times. Freshman Breeanna Gibson placed fourth in the weight throw, then placed second in the shot put with a new personal best of 12.46 meters.

Freshman Kart Sillats clearing the 1.73-meter bar was enough to win the high jump and freshman Sandra Venghaus placed third.

Senior high-jumper Dora Gyorffy is now back on campus after taking off the fall semester to compete in the Sydney Olympics. Both she and Sillats will be competing together this weekend at the Millrose Games, the self-proclaimed greatest indoor track and field event in the world.

Sophomore Alayna Miller placed second in both the long jump and the triple jump, while senior Kathryn Ousley earned a crucial third-place finish in the triple jump.

Sophomore Helena Ronner--typically a sure winner in the long jump and triple jump--was out due to illness. The return of Gyorffy and Ronner should provide a significant boost to the Crimson's final tally in the coming weeks..

Harvard Men

The Crimson throwers were solid as expected on Saturday. In the shot put, Kraay won convincingly with a 16.33-meter toss--one of the best throws in the Ivies this year. Kraay, sophomore Xavier Goss and freshman Adam Gelardi gave Harvard a one-two-three finish in the event. Co-captain Chris Clever led Harvard in the shot put with a second-place finish, and senior Tarek Hamid finished fourth.

Nwokocha won the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.03 seconds. Sophomore John Meeker placed right behind him in second to give the Crimson a one-two finish. Junior Shawn Parker and sophomore Niall Murphy finished second and fourth, respectively, to earn points for Harvard in the 60-meter high hurdles.

Andrew-Jaja and senior Arthur Fergusson led the Crimson in the field. Andrew-Jaja won the triple jump with a personal best 14.53-meter leap and cleared the 2.01-meter bar to earn second in the high jump. Fergusson placed just behind his teammate in the triple jump and placed second in the long jump. Junior Aaron Snead finished tied for third in the pole vault.

In the individual distance events, Harvard was shut out of victories yet still earned its fair share of points. Freshman Alisdair McLean-Forman and sophomore John Traugott placed two-three in the 1000, while senior Ed Baker and sophomore Matthew Seidel finished three-four in the mile. Sophomore Chris Antunes was fourth in the 800.

The two-mile relay team won convincingly in a time of 7:43.75--only Princeton and Columbia have raced faster in the Ivies this year.