Men’s, Women’s Track Come Up ‘Short’ Against Northeastern

After nearly a month’s layaway from racing, the Harvard men and women’s track and field teams awoke from their winter break Saturday against Northeastern.

Beginning the longer stretch of the season, which leads up to the ECAC indoor championships on March 6-7, the men’s team fell to the Huskies 82-62 and the Crimson women followed suit with a 71-55 defeat.

Although tough individual performances abounded for both teams on Saturday, Harvard’s showed its biggest weakness in the sprinting and field events.

“I can’t really say that the loss was disappointing, simply because we just don’t have enough warm bodies in the sprints,” said sophomore Timothy Galebach.

Harvard will prepare for upcoming meets against Ivy and ECAC rivals, starting on Jan. 31 as they host Cornell and Brown in a tri-team meet.

Men

The Crimson men absolutely dominated the longer distance events against Northeastern despite losing the overall contest due to a lack of athletes in any race under 500m.

“Everyone was capable of faster times but sacrificed individual performances for the team,” said junior Alasdair McLean-Foreman. “We lost the meet because we didn’t have anyone in the 60m through to 500m—if the meet had been scored using the events we actually competed in it would have been a different story.”

Leading the team on Saturday were two runners who surpassed expectations to come out so strong right now.

Galebach, who had consistent quality performances throughout the cross-country season, is still recovering from an injury, but managed to muster some points for Harvard by winning the 3000m in 8:45.56 and placing second in the mile at 4:29.69. Galebach feels like he is a few weeks of training away from running against top-flight competition.

The Crimson also received a number of points from freshman Conor Wilson, who came up just as strong by beating Galebach in the mile by nine seconds and finishing a close third to two Harvard runners in the 1000m.

“[Wilson’s] been really consistent in training. I think he should be knocking on the door of a 4:10 mile in the next month or two,” Galebach said. “I was glad to see him get a win; most freshmen don’t usually get that chance.”

The other two runners who completed Harvard’s domination in the 1000m on Saturday were McLean-Foreman—who won the race in 2:31.51—and freshman Jonathan Paul.

McLean-Foreman grabbed first-place points for the Crimson despite still feeling the effects of the flu, which he had over winter break.

“The athletes’ job is to go out there and perform to the best of their abilities,” Galebach said. “We can’t worry about if we have enough guys on the team: only the coaching staff and luck control that factor.”

Women

On the women’s side, the story was almost the same.

The Crimson only finished second or third at best in any field or sprinting event—outside of the sweep of the top three spots in the weight throw by seniors Johanna Doyle and BreeAnna Gibson and freshman Shawna Strayhorn.

Nevertheless, the team was able to stay within striking distance of the Huskies because of strong performances by its core of upperclassmen in the long and mid-distance runs.

Junior Rosalinda Castaneda had the best day by winning the 3000m in 10:38.65 and placing third in the mile. Her 3000m race came amongst zealous and physical competition from the Northeastern runners.

“She had a rough time in the mile because she was boxed in at the beginning,” said sophomore Laura Maludzinski. “And the Northeastern girls were pretty nasty. Whenever she would try to make a move to pass, they would speed up and move out so that she couldn’t get by them. One even elbowed her off the track at one point in the race.”

The strong double comes following a switch this year from longer distances to events for which her training is shorter and faster workouts.

“The mile/3k double is one that people normally try to avoid, because they’re the two longest races in the meet,” said senior Beverly Whelan. “[Castaneda] was very excited about doing it. She said the 3k felt easy, which is probably because she’s now used to running a lot faster around the track.”

Whelan posted a strong double herself against Northeastern, winning the 800m in 2:19.39 and anchoring the first place 4x800m relay team which also included seniors Virginia Scott and Jennifer Lee and sophomore Laura Maludzinski.

“The race’s speed felt uncomfortable at first because I haven’t done any speed training yet this year, as our workouts have been geared towards the mile,” Whelan said. “I think I ran better in the relay because it was my second 800 of the day so the beginning wasn’t as much of a shock.”

Maludzinski also posted a 5:10.69 to win the mile and complete her own strong performance on the day. Nevertheless, her time was still 20 seconds off of her personal record for the race.

“There’s still a ways to go before the end of the season,” Maludzinski said. “But we knew going into the race that Northeastern didn’t have really strong milers, so there really wasn’t a need to push the pace too much.”

But the upcoming meets for the Harvard team will include stiffer long distance competition for both the men and the women as it faces Ivy League rivals later in the month.

—Staff writer Gabriel M. Velez can be reached at gmvelez@fas.harvard.edu.