M. Track Improves By Leaps and Bounds at Heps

It wasn't quite a worst-to-first turnaround, but it almost was worst-to-second.

After finishing dead last at the Indoor Heptagonal Championships one year ago, the Harvard men's track team bounced back in a huge way at this year's title meet, held this past weekend at the Gordon Track Center.

Riding a phenomal showing on the second day of competition, the Crimson finished fourth out of the nine participating teams, nearly quadrupling its point total from a year ago.

After earning just two fifth-place finishes on Saturday, Harvard earned points in nine of yesterday's 15 events, including nine top-three finishes.

"The team was mostly very excited," said senior Arthur Fergusson, who placed in both the high jump and triple jump . "We've been working hard all year and it showed. We wanted to get back to form after last year's trauma and show we could compete with anybody."

For the record, Princeton won the competition by 34 points to claim its fourth consecutive Heps title. But the Crimson's fourth-place showing was more than simply an improvement over last year's dismal performance. It was reason for pride.

"It's all about heart," co-captain John Kraay said during the competition yesterday. "We've been giving them hell today. I'm as happy as hell."

And as impressive as Harvard's performance was, it could have been even better. The Crimson would have placed second overall if not for a controversial call that invalidated senior Ed Baker's second-place finish in the 3,000-meter run on Saturday.

Heading into the last 50 meters of the race, Baker was running in the lead, trailed closely by Peter Hollatz of Brown. But as the two entered the homestretch of the final lap, Baker veered to his right, from lane one over into lane three.

Hollatz eventually overtook Baker, who finished second.

Or so he thought.

Just as quickly as Baker's name and time had flashed across the scoreboard, they suddenly disappeared.

Baker had been disqualified. Race officials said that he had impeded Hollatz's progress by changing lanes so abruptly.

"I was confused," Baker said. "I wasn't aware I had broken any rules."

Harvard Coach Frank Haggerty protested the decision, questioning how Baker could have impeded a runner who finished ahead of him. The officials, however, upheld the ruling.

As a result, Baker's national-qualifying time of 8:07.04--which would have shattered his previous personal best by eleven seconds--was thrown out.

Baker's disqualification robbed Harvard of eight points. Had his finish been allowed to stand, those points would have propelled the Crimson into second place instead of fourth.

Also, with Baker disqualified, at the end of competition on Saturday, Harvard found itself in the exact same position as last year--ninth out of nine.

Fergusson's fifth-place showing in the high jump and co-captain Chris Clever's toss of 16.55 meters--good for fifth place in the weight throw--was all that prevented Harvard from being shutout going into Sunday.

But on Saturday night, the Crimson held a team meeting, at which they decided to put off worrying about Baker's trevails and focus on doing their individual bests the next day.

As Sunday would show, that strategy worked.

"You can look at [Baker's disqualification] like it's eight points we lost, but we don't have them so we can't worry about it," Kraay said. "I think it motivated us a little bit."

"It got us going, got us fired up."

Early on Sunday, Fergusson and freshman Tekky Andrew-Jaja ignited the Crimson's rally in the triple jump. The pair claimed second and third respectively to garner 14 points for Harvard.

"We had to set a tone," Fergusson said.

And set a tone they did. After the triple jump, Harvard reeled off a string of important finishes that helped it ascend quickly in the meet's standings.

First was Shawn Parker's 8.21-second performance in the 60-meter hurdles.

One event later, junior Kobie Fuller exploded for a third-place finish in the 400-meter dash with a time of 48.74.

Next came the biggest surprise of all.

In the 800-meter race, freshman Alasdair McLean-Foreman outran four runners who were seeded ahead of him to take first place in 1:51.25.

With that showing, the rookie sprinter smashed his previous personal best time by better than 1.5 seconds.

It was also Harvard's only first-place finish of the competion.

In the next event after McLean-Foreman's victory, sophomore John Traugott earned a second-place finish in the 1,000-meter run, crossing the line at 2.29.83.

"I wasn't expecting [this much success], but I knew we were capable of it," Baker said. "Lots of runners just stepped it up and ran better than they were supposed to, which is what needed to happen."

While the Crimson runners were exceeding expectations on the track, Kraay was setting his own personal record in the shot put

Though Princeton's Scott Denbo put first place out of reach with a toss of 17.85 meters, Kraay outdueled Cornell's Brett Coffing for second place in a battle to the finish with personal best throw of 17.01.

"[Coffing] got me on my last throw and I got him on my last throw," Kraay said. "That's what it's all about--outcompeting the other guys."

As the close of competition neared yesterday, it seemed Baker's misfortune had been all but forgotten--except perhaps by Baker, who now has only one more chance (at IC4As next weekend) to qualify for nationals in the 3000.

"It was disappointing," Baker said. "But what it really did was make me want to run faster the next day."

Baker did indeed rally back from his setback on Saturday, claiming second place in the 5,000-meter race yesterday.

That finish, followed up by Harvard's second-place performance in the two-mile relay, capped off the Crimson's remarkable second-day comeback, which will now surely send Harvard soaring into the outdoor season.