Grant Matches Personal Best as Women Fall to Cornell

Harvard women’s track co-captain Nicky Grant tied her personal best throw of 18.90 meters to lead a one-two-three Crimson finish in the 20-pound weight early Saturday afternoon in a tri-meet with Brown and Cornell.

But the Big Red would be the dominant team for the rest of the way. Cornell’s 88.5 points buried Harvard’s final tally of 39 and Brown’s 31.5.

Before Saturday, none of the Harvard athletes had ever lost an indoor dual or tri-meet in their careers. Cornell’s margin of victory made the defeat particularly stinging.

“I knew Cornell was a good team, but I didn’t think they were that good,” Harvard co-captain Carrie McGraw said. “I think they’re going to be the team to beat at [the Heptagonal Championships].”

In recent seasons, Cornell had been standing in the shadow of Harvard, the 2000 Indoor Heptagonal champion, and Brown, the champion last season. With both Brown and Harvard suffering heavy losses to graduation, Cornell has taken control.

“With all of the superstars that Brown and Harvard had, you could never see how good Cornell was,” Grant said. “Now that all the superstars are gone, Cornell seemed to take the day.”

Grant’s winning throw—which came on her sixth and final attempt of the day—matched the personal-best and school-record performance she set in the team’s first meet in December. She was still unsatisfied with that result, however.

Her throw of 18.90 meters now places 13th on the national performance lists. Grant will need to finish in approximately the top 16 in the nation to earn a berth in the NCAA championships, and she expects that it will take at least 19 meters to achieve that at season’s end.

“It was kind of frustrating,” Grant said. “There were technical problems I was running into. It was good to meet my PR, but there are definitely things I need to work on to get over 19 meters.”

Sophomore Breeanna Gibson also shined in the weight throw, setting a personal record of 15.42 meters that beat her previous best by nearly a foot and placed her second.

Both sophomore Beverly Whelan, who placed third in the mile at 5:05.54, and junior Deirdre Colgan, who placed third in the 3000 at 10:26.24, also set personal bests.

Harvard’s only event winners other than Grant were Helena Ronner, who won the triple jump comfortably with a leap of 12.04 meters, and defending NCAA indoor champion Kart Siilats, who peaked in the high jump at 1.75 meters—still well short of the NCAA qualifying mark.

The lack of other Harvard event winners was heightened by injuries to distance runners who had competed in other events during the past week.

“The effort we put forth this meet was not reflective of our best effort,” Grant said. “I think we’ll be able to score more points at Heps.”