Freshmen Impress In W. Track Debut

The weight throw is where Harvard women’s track and field has made the biggest splash in its season-opening meet against Boston College in recent years.

For the past two seasons, Nicky Grant ’02 led the Crimson contingent in the event. On Saturday, it was junior Johanna Doyle.

Doyle pulled off a personal best of 16.50 meters to win the weight throw, while classmate BreeAnna Gibson followed with a throw of 15.75 meters. Grant, Gibson and Doyle finished one-two-three at Indoor Heptagonals last year, and even with Grant having graduated, it still appears to be Harvard’s strongest event.

Grant, who was in attendance, wondered aloud how much longer her school record of 18.90 meters would last.

Harvard won the majority of events yesterday, but fell 64-63. Although the result was disappointing, the championship meet in March—Indoor Heps—counts significantly more than the dual meets that precede it.

“It’s still super early in the season, so we have a couple more months to improve,” said co-captain Alaina Aguanno. “It was a positive meet even if we did lose by a point. The freshmen totally stole the show.”

Harvard got victories in four events from its rookies—Stevie Degroff in the 60 and 200-meter dashes, Anne Hillier in the 400 and Mary Serdakowski in the 60-meter hurdles. All four winning times would have been fast enough to score at Heps last season.

Harvard has typically won the BC meet convincingly in recent years, but the Crimson wasn’t as dominant in the field this time. With NCAA high jump champions Dora Gyorffy ’01 and Kart Siilats ’02 now graduated, the Crimson did not have a competitor in the event.

Senior Helena Ronner—the Indoor Heps champion in both the long jump and triple jump—won the former on Saturday, but placed only third in the triple jump.

Sam Piper was the only other senior to win an individual event. She took first in the 800-meter run. Harvard also won both relays.

—Staff writer David R. De Remer can be reached at remer@fas.harvard.edu.

BC 64, W. Track 63

Harvard Point Scorers

60: 1. DeGroff 7.88, 3. Gora 8.02. 200: 1. DeGroff 25.89, 3. Gota 26.72 400: 1. Hillier 57.77, 3. Furst 59.50 800: 1. Piper 2:15.6, 3. Morgan-Gates 2:20. 4 Mile: 2. Whelan 5:00.93 3000: 3. Tanner 10:19.15 60 hurdles: 1. Serdakowski 8.94 4x400 relay: 1. Harvard 3:57.20. 4x800 relay: 1. Harvard 9:25.64. High Jump: None Pole Vault: None Long Jump: 1. Ronner 5.48 Triple Jump: 2. Cutright-Smith 11.08, 3. Ronner 11.04 Shot Put: 2. Gibson 13.01 Weight Throw: 1. Doyle 16.50, 2. Gibson 15.75