Indoor Season Opens at BU Meet

There’s no rest for the weary, as Harvard coach Jason Saretsky quickly turns around, following the conclusion of the cross country season on Nov. 24, to kick off the indoor track and field campaign tomorrow at the Husky Winter Carnival hosted by Boston University.

With the dawn of the new year, Saretsky and the track squad will benefit from the addition of new faces. Twenty freshmen have joined the ranks on the men’s side, while the women’s side brought in 18.

“The attitude is just great that we know that the young guys can help us,” sophomore Dan Chenoweth said.

The early-season meets will provide ample opportunity for the rookies to make their marks in their respective events.

One such newcomer, Nico Weiler, will help bolster the men’s vault, which last year only had two competitors. The Stuttgart, Germany native was the under-18 World Champion in the pole vault in 2006 and was named to the All-USA team by USA Today this year.

“Nico is ridiculous,” Chenoweth said.

And with the graduation of captain Brian Holmquest, freshmen like Ryan Neely are already fit to fill in. Neely led the Crimson effort at the IC4A Championship on Nov. 22 with a time of 26:05 in the 5K race. And although the indoor conditions are far different from those of cross country, Neely’s finish shows he’s already comfortable competing at the collegiate level.

The women’s freshman distance runners can also be encouraged by the results from the cross-country season from rookies like Jeanne Mack and Kailyn Kuzmuk.

But neither side can underestimate the strength of the veterans.

Captain Becky Christensen returns for her senior campaign and is hoping to build off last year’s success that included, among other accolades, All-America honors after finishing fourth at the NCAA Championships in the high jump, her first career indoor Heptagonal title, and an Olympic trials performance that resulted in a personal best 1.84-meter clearance.

“The goal I’m going to stick to is to not keep track of numbers in my head,” Christensen said. “I’m going to focus on just going out and having fun.”

With the season just beginning, the squad is just focusing on getting up to speed.

The distance runners are not expected to compete, taking a much deserved break after the taxing cross-country season.

“For the rest of the team, it’s a really, really early season thing, just to get a competitive spirit going,” Chenoweth said. “It’s all about re-collecting and getting some base work in.”

“These two meets in December are still all about getting back in the swing of competing,” Christensen said. “I’ll be using a really short approach, so it’ll be like a practice for me.”

But the squad still has its eyes on capitalizing on all the new and returning talent it will sport this season. The women’s side finished fourth at both the indoor and outdoor Heptagonal Championships last year, and the Crimson’s strong returners are hoping to build off that. Though there was distance between third and fourth at indoors, the women missed fourth at outdoors by just one point.

“We’re hoping to close the gap between third and fourth [in the indoor season],” Christensen said. “The freshmen are definitely going to help us do that.”

—Staff writer Dixon McPhillips can be reached at fmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.