Seidel Leads Off For Men's Cross Country

Both Harvard cross country teams opened their 2002 seasons on Saturday against Brown, but the two came away with very different results.

While the men, led by race winner and captain Matt Seidel, took three of the top four and five of the top seven places en route to a 21-34 victory, no Crimson woman placed higher than sixth in their 15-48 loss.

Men

The Harvard men, coming off several weeks of demanding training beginning with a preseason trip to Vermont, took their cue from Seidel and turned in a strong performance to win their season-opening meet against Brown for the first time in several years.

“The Bus was powering through,” senior John Traugott said, referring to the vehicular nickname Seidel’s former 195-pound stature earned him amongst his teammates.

Indeed, Seidel showed no ill effects from a recent knee injury, looking strong while covering the five-kilometer (3.1-mile) course in 25:18.

Meanwhile, Traugott tried to stay with his captain, but he couldn’t match Seidel’s final move and finished third in 25:46.

Even so, running on ski slopes in Vermont made the Crimson’s home Franklin Park course—one that sandwiches a formidable hill between gently rolling ones—seem like the Great Plains.

“Vermont flat is hillier than any run we can do in Boston,” Traugott said.

Behind Traugott, senior Taylor Banks—whom Seidel called “the surprise of the fall”—took fourth in 26:01, while sophomores Devin Lyons-Quirk and Reid Bienvenu finished sixth and seventh in 26:15 and 26:22, respectively.

Given the team’s grueling preseason schedule, the men were very happy with the results.

“We’ve been through a few hard weeks of training, so all our bodies are pretty worn down right now,” Traugott said. “To perform like that is really encouraging.”

However, it won’t be easy for the team to overcome the leadership void created by the graduation of former captain John Friedman ’02 and the absence of Alasdair McLean-Foreman, who is taking a leave of absence for academic reasons.

Still, with nearly half the roster comprised of seniors who still remember last-place finishes at the 1999 and 2000 Heptagonals, the men certainly have both the experience and the motivation to have a successful season.

Women

The women’s team has been easing cautiously into the season to prevent the injury problems that have plagued it in the past. Consequently, it has yet to conduct a significant speed workout and many of its top runners did not even compete on Saturday.

Among those who did run, captain Claire Nicholas and junior Virginia Scott turned in strong performances, with Nicholas finishing sixth in 19:00 and Scott registering a personal best, 41 seconds behind her in twelfth. Senior Leif-Ann Reilly exhibited midseason form after a summer of strong training, finishing 15th in 20:15.

But with barely a quarter as many competitors as Brown, the Crimson knew its chances of winning were limited entering the race. Instead, it used the competition as a building block toward the rest of the season.

“It was a good starting point,” Reilly said. “It was the end of our preseason training. We obviously had small numbers, but we did well with what we had.”

Once seniors Deirdre Colgan and Melissa Tanner and junior Bev Whelan have completely recovered from injuries, the team should be even stronger.

Indeed, both the men’s and the women’s next race—the six-kilometer Ional Meet of Champions on Sept. 28—should be a much better indicator of what to expect from them this season, as freshmen for both squads have only begun practicing in the last few days.

—Staff writer Alan G. Ginsberg can be reached at aginsber@fas.harvard.edu.