Meets With Princeton, Yale Result in Disappointing Defeats

The Harvard cross-country team suffered a disappointing Friday afternoon in Boston’s Franklin Park, with the men falling to Yale 34-21 and the women finishing last in their meet with Yale and Princeton.

Eight Harvard men competed in the 8k race against the Bulldogs, five of whom placed in the top 10. However, the first two finishers both wore the navy and white. Yale sophomore Jake Gallagher won with a time of 25:08, and senior Brian Gertzen finished on the heels of his teammate, posting a time of 25:14.

Junior Ryan Hafer had the best showing for the Crimson, coming in third with a time of 25:24 despite having to battle illness. But Hafer was bracketed by Yale runners, who also came in fourth and fifth to lock up the victory for the Bulldogs. Harvard senior Sean Barrett, freshman Ben Gutierrez and junior Brian Holmquest finished sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively, but those showings were not enough to overcome Yale’s top-heavy performance.

Despite the defeat, the Crimson remained optimistic as to its prospects for the rest of the season.

“We really hadn’t done a whole lot to get ready for [the Yale meet], in terms of actual speed stuff,” Barrett said. “The [Heptagonal Championships] and [NCAA] Regionals are what we have as our goals. It wasn’t like we were gearing up to go crazy at this meet.”

“I think Yale’s been doing a lot more fast running at this point, and we’ve done a lot more strength stuff, for the middle of the race,” Hafer added.

“And so we just didn’t have the speed to get out as fast as they did.”

In addition, Harvard was missing several key contributors, as junior Chris Green and senior Tim Galebach both sat the meet out with minor injuries. Both should be back on the track in the near future.

After an encouraging showing in the first event of the season last weekend, in which they finished fifth out of 19 teams at the Fordham Fiasco Invitational, the women’s team was blown out by Princeton and Yale in the annual H-Y-P meet. Bulldogs junior Lindsay Donaldson came in first in the 5k run with a time of 17:26, followed by a veritable army of Tigers, as seven straight Princeton runners finished the race between 17:31 and 18:02 seconds to lead their school to a dominant victory.

“It’s always a tough meet for us,” said junior Lauren Walker, who finished with a time of 19:49. “Yale and Princeton are very good. They’re tough competitors. It’s still early in the season, and so I think we’re all still pretty excited.”

Junior Sarah Bourne was the first Crimson runner to clock in, finishing in 22nd place, more than a minute behind Donaldson. Sophomore Jessica Bryant finished two seconds behind Bourne in 23rd.

Princeton won the overall standings, totaling a score of 20 to Yale’s 43 and Harvard’s 85. In the dual meets, the Crimson fell to both Princeton and Yale by 15-50 scores.

Harvard’s chances were critically hurt due to the absence of four-time All-America junior Lindsey Scherf, who sat out her second straight team meet to start the season.

Both the men and women will look to regain their stride next Saturday at Van Cortlandt Park in New York City, where they will compete in the Iona Meet of Champions.

—Staff writer Caleb W. Peiffer can be reached at cpeiffer@fas.harvard.edu.