M. Track Places Ninth at IC4As With Just Five Athletes

When the Harvard men’s track team sent just five athletes to the IC4A indoor championships this past weekend, it wasn’t expecting to put together enough points to have an outstanding team showing.

But those five athletes apparently thought otherwise. By the time the final tally was counted last weekend, the Crimson found itself in ninth place out of 55 teams who scored points at the meet. Harvard had a total of 22. Georgetown won the meet with 65.

“Initially we were going to run fast as individuals, but then we pulled together as a team,” said junior John Traugott, whose second-place finish in the 1000 meters was the team’s top-scoring performance.

Since the Heptagonal championships last week remain the biggest team meet of the season for the Ivy schools, Harvard elected not to send all of its qualifiers—or any relay teams—to IC4As. Entering the weekend, the meet was expected to be contested mainly for pride. But that quickly changed when the points started piling up.

“[IC4As] is usually an afterthought, but luckily we came to play,” Traugott said. “It was good because we were representing the team.”

Had Harvard fielded junior Chris Lambert, its relay teams and its other qualfied competitors at the meet, the Crimson’s finish could have been considerably higher than ninth.

Traugott recorded a 2:24.91 run, good for second in a 1000 preliminary heat. That performance was not only a personal record for Traugott, but also the fourth-best indoor performance in school history.

That time was four seconds better than his mark at the Heptagonal championships that won him third place. At Heps, Traugott ran at the back of the pack until the final 300 meters. He later regretted not making a move earlier in the race.

“I wanted to go out and prove something because Heps was slightly disappointing,” he said.

In Traugott’s final heat this weekend, he beat the La Salle runner that had bested him in the preliminaries, placing second with a time of 2:25.87.

Harvard co-captain John Cinelli also earned points in the 1000 by finishing seventh at 2:26.70.

Harvard’s other place-winners were sophomore Alasdair McLean-Foreman, who placed third in the mile at 4:07.45, co-captain Kobie Fuller, who placed fifth in the 500 at 1:03.11, and junior Matt Seidel, who placed seventh in the 3000 at 8:18.81.

The Harvard women’s track team tallied seven points at ECACs.

The two scorers were co-captain Nicky Grant, who placed fifth in the weight throw at 17.41 meters, and junior Helena Ronner, who placed sixth in the long jump with her mark of 12.19 meters.

Grant attributed her subpar performance, which was well short of her personal best of 18.90 meters, to a pre-meet hamstring injury and the different-style weight that is used at ECACs.

She finishes the year 27th on the national performance list based on her two throws of 18.90 meters this season. That leaves Grant 11 places and about a half a meter short of what she would have needed to qualify for NCAAs.

The ECAC meet marked Grant’s last college indoor weight throw competition. Her 18.90 mark is a school record. She first captured the school record as a sophomore before breaking it again several times throughout her college career.

All of the Harvard men and women will now rest up for the outdoor season, except for senior Kart Siilats, who will look to defend her NCAA indoor high jump title at Arkansas this weekend. The high jump final is set for Saturday at 3:45 p.m.