Track Teams Dominate Annual Yale Dual Meet

The Harvard women's track team renewed its history of domination against Yale with a 104-50 thrashing of the Elis on Saturday. The Harvard men also won convincingly, 92-71.

Harvard Women 104, Yale 50

The Crimson women won every outdoor dual meet against Yale through the course of the 1990s. But then the Elis stunned Harvard last year, 82-72, to end the ten-year win streak.

Let the new streak begin.

"It was redemption," said Harvard co-captain Brenda Taylor, who won three individual events for the Crimson. "We came back with a vengeance. We let out our frustration from last year and Indoor Heps. We knew we had to put it all together down the home stretch going into Outdoor Heps [in two weeks]."

Taylor won the 100-meter dash in a school-record time of 11.91 seconds. She shaved sixth-hundreths off of the school record she set last year at Outdoor Heps. The record had been held previously by two-time Olympian Meredith Rainey-Valmon `90.

Taylor was a few hundredths off another school record with a 13.63-second run in the 100-meter high hurdles. Sophomores Alayna Miller and Amanda Shanklin finished second and thirdto give Harvard a sweep in the event.

Taylor and Shanklin also finished one-two in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles. Taylor, who coasted to a victory in 58.49-second time on Saturday, is third on the national performance lists in the event thanks to her 57.02-second time at the Bayou Classic over spring break.

Both Taylor and Shanklin will be competing at the Penn Relays on Thursday morning. Taylor finished fifth at the meet last year. Harvard is also sending a 4x400 relay team.

Both Harvard's 4x100 and 4x400 teams won convincingly on Saturday.

Co-captain Marna Schutte, who ran for the first time during the outdoor season on Saturday, appears ready to join the 4x400 relay at Penn. She won the 400-meter dash comfortably, with a respectable time of 55.66 seconds.

The key to the Crimson's ability to turn a 10-point loss to Yale into a 54-point victory was the throws. Last year, Harvard didn't win a single throwing event at the dual meet. On Saturday, the Crimson outscored Yale 33-3 in four events.

"[Last year's results] were definitely on our minds," said junior thrower Nicky Grant. "We really wanted to pay them back for what they did to us last year. Everyone knew exactly what they needed to do to score and win this meet today."

Grant led the way, scoring victories in the shot put, the hammer throw, and placing second in the discus.

"[Nicky] is really powerful," Taylor said. "She has been working on events, like the shot put, that she hasn't been doing for a while, and it's showing."

Grant won the shot put with a 13.36-meter throw after a 13.35-meter effort last weekend.

"I've sort picked it up during spring break," Grant said. "It's been going surprisingly well, and I should be able to score at Heps."

But her most invigorating performance came in the hammer throw. Grant unleashed a 52.40-meter throw that buried her previous personal best by over two meters.

"That fired everyone up," Taylor said of Grant's victory, which led off the meet. "She beat [Yale's Melanie Harris], who's everyone's rival. That was an upset."

Harris placed second with a 51.34-meter throw which was also her season-best in the hammer. Grant avenged February's disappointing loss to Harris at the Indoor Heps weight throw.

"It was great to have such a good showing at home," Grant said. "After what happened last time, I just wanted to remind her that it wouldn't end up that way again."

Grant's winning throw in the hammer was the best throw in the Ivies this year, and second on the school's all-time performance list. Freshman Johanna Doyle also had a personal-best throw of 49.72 meters in a third-place finish.

"We started off so strongly and dominated the event," Grant said. "Everyone could feel the electricity, and it transferred to both the men's and women's sides."

Freshman Breeanna Gibson upped her season-best another meter with a 43.74-meter throw to win the discus. Gibson's throw places her in the top five among the Ivy rankings. Freshman Alexandra Petrone won the javelin with a 39.98-meter throw.

"This [performance] shows how deep we really are," Grant said. "Our freshmen have come up big. Scoring 33 of 36 points at this meet shows how strong we're going to be at Heps."

Sophomore Helena Ronner was also a two-event winner, taking the triple jump at 12.35 meters and the long jump at 5.99 meters. Ronner's winning leap in the long jump was the best in the Ivies this Outdoor season.

Senior Dora Gyoffy and sophomore Kart Siilats finished one-two in the high jump, while freshman Andrea Li and sophomores Bryce Weed and Amy Bei swept the pole vault.

Harvard Men 92, Yale 71

As with the Crimson women, the throws proved to be the difference in the meet. The Harvard throwers outscored Yale, 32-4.

Co-captain Chris Clever won the javelin at 71.50 meters. Clever already met the automatic qualifier for NCAAs on Apr. 7. His 72.84-meter throw that day places him fifth on the latest national performance list. The NCAA leader is at 74.92 meters.

Co-captain John Kraay and sophomore Ian Shelswell continued to excel in the discus. The two were neck-and-neck, with Kraay winning at 47.86 meters and Shelswell placing second at 47.34. The two are second and third on the Ivy performance lists in the event.

Kraay's 16.83-meter winning throw gave him his outdoor season's best in the shot put, better than anyone in the Ivies outside of Princeton's Scott Denbo. Shelswell also won the hammer with a throw of 50 meters.

Freshman Alasdair McLean-Forman was Harvard's biggest winner on the track, taking the 800-meter run and the 1500-meter run.

Sophomore John Meeker also performed well, taking the 100-meter dash in 10.89 seconds. In the 200-meter dash, he fell short of beating the league's best in the event-Yale's Jason Rife-but still put up time of 21.85 seconds, one of the best times in the Ivies this year.

Adding to the Harvard blowout was the win of the 4x100 relay team, which won in 42.22 seconds by just a hundredth of a second over the Elis.

Rounding out the winners for Harvard were senior Ed Baker in the 3000-meter steeplechase, sophomore Taylor Buckley in the high jump, and junior Kobie Fuller in the triple jump.