Track Teams Dominate Yale

In any sport, there is a certain mystique associated with competition between Harvard and Yale. Track is no exception.

“You want to make it clear to them that you’re the more powerful team out there,” sophomore Alex Petrone said.

Both Harvard track teams did so convincingly yesterday. The women swept the throwing events en route to a 99-64 victory, while outstanding performances from co-captain Kobie Fuller and junior Chris Lambert spurred the men to an 87-72 triumph.

Harvard Women

The Crimson outscored the Bulldogs by a commanding 67-5 margin in the field events and cruised to a 35-point win.

Co-captain Nicky Grant turned in the day’s most dominating outing, setting the Harvard and Ivy League record by throwing the hammer 56.82 meters. In doing so, Grant, who already holds the school record in the weight throw, met the provisional NCAA qualifying standard.

Sophomores Johanna Doyle and BreeAnna Gibson finished second and third, respectively, behind Grant.

Gibson also led Crimson sweeps in the shot put and the discus, with throws of 12.64 meters and 40.72 meters, respectively. Even though Yale didn’t enter a competitor in the discus, Harvard’s throwers still had to compete with a steady rain that fell during the event.

“You have to be more conservative in the rain,” Gibson said. “You can’t go after it quite as much.”

Gibson completed her day by taking second while competing in the javelin for the first time. Petrone won the event with a throw of 43.02 meters, breaking her own school record by over two meters.

“All week I’d focused more on technique than I had previously,” Petrone said. “It’s amazing how much of the throws is technique.”

Junior Amy Bei came out on top of yet another Crimson sweep, this one in the pole vault.

Junior Helena Ronner won three events for Harvard, capturing both the triple and long jumps and spearheading a Harvard sweep in the 100-meter dash.

Junior Amanda Shanklin took second in the triple jump and third in the high jump behind Ronner and also scored points in the three other events in which she competed.

In the high jump, the Crimson received encouraging news when senior and 2001 NCAA champion Kart Siilats took first in her return from a pulled hamstring she suffered before the indoor NCAA championships. Siilats was followed by sophomore Sandra Venghaus.

Harvard also got first-place finishes from co-captain Carrie McGraw, who turned in a time of 57.02 seconds in the 400-meter dash, and junior Ashley Furst, who set a personal best in winning the 800-meter run.

The Crimson even earned points in the steeplechase, an event which Yale added for this year’s competition, with second- and third-place finishes.

Harvard Men

While the women rode an overpowering showing in the field events to victory, the men’s attack was much more balanced, including sweeps in the 200-meter dash, the 800-meter run, the 1500-meter run and the triple jump.

As good as Lambert’s Ivy season-best time of 10.46 seconds in the 100-meter dash was—and it was the second-fastest time in Harvard history—his 20.82-second mark in the 200-meter dash was even more impressive. In addition to topping the 2002 Ivy charts and earning Lambert second place in the Harvard record books, it also made him a provisional NCAA qualifier.

“Seeing that, it just gets you more fired up to do the best you can,” Fuller said.

Clearly, the motivation worked, as Fuller’s time of 21.63 seconds in the 200 trails only Lambert among Ivy runners. Junior Sean Meeker completed the sweep, finishing in 21.9 seconds despite the pouring rain.

In the 400-meter dash, Fuller fought a stiff wind on the back stretch but cruised to victory in 48.1 seconds.

In addition, seniors Shawn Parker and Rich Bravin placed second to Yale standout Thomas Hocker in the 110-meter and 400-meter hurdles respectively.

Senior Nnamdi Okike won the 800-meter run, finishing ahead of sophomore Alasdair McLean-Foreman, who played a role in a second sweep by winning the 1500-meter run.

The 4x100-meter relay team comprised of Parker, Meeker, Fuller and Chris Lambert won in 41.15 seconds, a time second only to the school record of 41.07 seconds that the quartet set last week at Columbia.

Fuller wasn’t done though, as he took second in the triple jump in just a single leap, falling only to freshman Travis Hughes. Freshman Zachary Raynor rounded out the sweep.

David Grimm and Nathan Shenk-Boright also earned five points for Harvard by winning the shot put and the 5000-meter run, respectively.

The win was even bigger for the Crimson considering that the home team had won the last several Harvard-Yale meets.

“To go in and beat Yale at their place has been a tough thing for us in the past,” co-captain John Cinelli said.

Next weekend, the top men’s and women’s performers will compete in the prestigious Penn Relays. The rest of the squad will head north to the UNH Invitational, but, either way, the wins over Yale have put both Crimson teams in a good position entering the rest of the season.

“Based on yesterday’s meet with 68 season-best performances and two victories over the Elis, I think we’re moving in the right direction,” assistant coach Paul Turner said.

After beating Yale, how could they not be?