Strong Turnout In Individual Meet

Harvard track and field crossed the river Friday and Saturday to take on the large swatch of competition that turned out for Boston University’s annual St. Valentine’s Invitational. The women’s squad posted nine top-25 performances in their meet on Friday, while the men’s squad offered up 11 top-30 showings on Saturday.

“We didn’t really go in with any team goals because there were no team rankings,” said senior women’s co-captain Sally Stanton. “But it was really great to see people do well on the individual level.”

Because the Invitational was an open one, over 1000 student-athletes packed the confines of BU’s Track and Tennis Center.

“It was a test [of] our endurance,” Stanton said. “And not all of us are endurance athletes.”

Fellow co-captain Molly Boyle arrived with the team at 2:30 pm, but had to wait until 11:15 to get her chance to compete in the weight throw.

But all that aside, the women’s team mustered up an impressive cadre of individual performances.

In the track events, junior Aishlinn O’Callaghan finished seventh in the 500 meter with a Harvard season-best time of 1:16.19. Freshman Kathryn Orchowski posted a time of 1:17.13 in the same event, notching a 12th place finish.

But the Crimson women found their greatest successes in the 5000 meter, filling out four of the top 25 spots. Freshman Meghan Houser finished 25th with a time of 18:00.57, while sophomore Stacy Carlson placed 23rd with a 17:52.79 finish, and senior Sarah Bourne posted a 16th place time of 17:36.15.

Freshman Claire Richardson’s 17:30.19 finish placed her 13th and qualified her for the ECAC Championships.

“That’s a huge thing to qualify for ECAC as a freshman,” Stanton said. “Indoors is a lot different from outdoors and from cross-country and Claire’s cross-country.”

The women’s squad also offered notable showings in the field events, including three top-10 finishes. In the pole vault, Stanton and classmate Clara Blattler cleared a 10th place height of 3.45 meters (11’3”) and a runner-up height of 3.70 meters (12’1”), respectively. Becky Christensen led Harvard high jumpers with a 1.73 meter (5’8”) jump.

On the men’s side, the Crimson effort was highlighted by senior Andrew Lipkin’s eighth place and IC4A qualifying time of 14:32.07 in the 5000 meter on Saturday, which set a new Harvard season record in the event.

“When your teammates go out and do well, it really adds energy to the rest of the team,” said men’s co-captain Brian Holmquest.

The rest of the team responded to that surge of energy, as sophomore Bobby Kenney and senior Haibo Lu finished the 1000 meter in a 13th place time of 2:29.71 and a 26th place time of 2:32.35, respectively, to round out the top-30 finishers in the track events.

The men saw more success in the field events, even though the overcrowded field made warming up for field events “problematic,” according to Holmquest.

Freshman Sean Gil finished ninth in the pole vault, clearing 4.6 meters (15’1”), while classmate John McVey had a season-best 4.15 meters (13’7.25”) for a 22nd place bid.

Sophomore Graham Infinger’s 6.60 meter (218”) long jump was good enough for 12th in the event, while classmate Jack Brady’s 15.44 meter (50’8”) shot put distance placed him in 10th.

Next up for the Crimson track and field squad is the HYP meet next Saturday in New Haven against Princeton and Yale, giving the team a good look at the opposition before the Heptagonal Championships in the beginning of March.

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