Track Prepares for Heps

With the two biggest meets of the indoor season looming over the next three weeks, the Harvard track and field teams placed second in the Greater Boston Championships with a number of its top athletes resting.

The meet—which took place at Gordon Track and Field Center—fielded a number of regional teams, including MIT, Brandeis and Bentley.

On the women’s side, strong performances from freshman Chelsae Smith and the shot put and weight throw athletes led Harvard to an 140-point team performance, 36 behind the meet’s winner, Northeastern.

Co-captain Beverly Whelan, sophomore Laura Maludzinski and junior Alasdair McLean-Foreman—all of whom have been some of Harvard’s best runners since cross country season—were absent for a more intense meet at Notre Dame this weekend.

Next week the team will have its toughest competition of the season to date when it faces Yale and Princeton. Two weeks later, the Crimson will follow up this rivalry with the Heptagonal Championships—the climax of the season.

“We have our most important part of the season ahead of us with the Yale meet and Heps to follow,” co-captain Adam Gelardi said.

Women

Despite not having three of its strongest long-distance runners on Saturday, the women’s team put together one of their best performances of the year in beating MIT, Brandeis and Bentley.

The absence of Maludzinski and Whelan and a “did not finish” for senior Mairead O’Callaghan left the three top runners on the sidelines for the Greater Boston Championships. In their absence, however, the sprinters on the team, led by Smith, helped spark a strong team finish.

“In the past, the distance events have been our weakness,” Whelan said, “and as a member of the mid-distance squad, I’m obviously proud that we’ve been contributing to this year’s scoring. But it’s also great to see the sprinters—especially some of the freshmen—contributing.”

Smith won the 200m dash in a time of 25.71, right on the heels of her second place time of 7.98 in the 60m race, contributing 18 points to the team’s total.

“We have had great sprinters like Brenda Taylor and Marna Schutte in my time here but have struggled with injuries in the last year,” co-captain BreeAnna Gibson said. “[Smith] has been able to stay healthy, you combine that with her hard work and dedication and you get great results.”

But more important than the individual performances for the team was the overall score, lifting its spirits and fostering hope amongst the team members leading up to the Heptagonals.

“It is exciting to see the team building momentum going into the two biggest meets of the year,” Gibson said.

Gibson won both the shot put (13 meters) and the weight throw (15.38 meters). She was followed closely in both by freshman Shawna Strayhorn, who earned two second-place finishes on the day. The race between the two Crimson athletes for first place was close, with Gibson’s victory in the weight throw coming on her last attempt.

Harvard’s other strong thrower, senior Johanna Doyle, was out with an injury, but has been strong so far this year. She is the third person in the Crimson’s strong triple threat in the weight throw and shot put in the upcoming Heptagonals.

Men

The men’s track and field team decided not to send a full team to the Greater Boston Championships—resting up a number of athletes for the next two meets—and finished second to MIT because of it.

Personal performances, however, were highlighted by junior Tekky Andrew-Jaja and his personal record in the high jump. By clearing the bar set at 2.06 meters—just over 6’9—he vaulted himself into the top high jumpers in the Ivy Leagues with the Heptagonal Championships two weeks down the road.

“Personally, that high jump came as a great relief to me almost instantaneously, as if I was finally able to get the monkey off my back in mid-air,” Andrew-Jaja said. “The last time I had been able to jump that high in an actual meet was on February 26, 2000, at Indoor States in PA, when I cleared 6’8.”

Unfortunately for Andrew-Jaja, over the last few years he has been plagued with injuries that prevented him from reaching his goal of seven feet. But now, feeling healthy and jumping his best ever, Andrew-Jaja and sophomore Cliff Emanuel will look to grab the top two spots in their event at Heptagonals, earning a number of important points for the Crimson.

“This leap instilled in me a new confidence,” Andrew-Jaja said, “one that will surely quiet my inner doubts that I can be the Heptagonal Champion in the high jump, that I can soon regain my place among the elite in the nation.”

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