Strong Performances at HYP

There’s nothing like kicking off the season with a competition where you’re slated as the underdog and you come out on top. Especially when the opponent is Yale.

On Saturday, the cross-country squad traveled to New Haven, Conn., where the regionally ranked No. 8 men’s squad captured the Main Memorial Trophy for the second year in a row from the regionally ranked No. 6 Bulldogs. The women also raced—against Princeton, as well as Yale—taking second behind the Tigers.

“I was pleased with the results,” Harvard coach Jason Saretsky said. “It’s a great historic rivalry, great tradition. And going up against a seasoned Yale squad, it was great to get two wins over them.”

On the men’s side, sophomore Dan Chenoweth notched the top spot in the 8K with a time of 25:43.89. Coming in at 25:53.64, captain Chas Gillespie took second. Junior Vito Cannavo and rookies Ben Enowitz and Dan Stiles rounded out the lineup of Crimson scorers. Enowitz finished 26:33.04 to take the overall fifth spot, while Cannavo and Stiles tallied sixth-place 26:37.95 and seventh-best 26:40.57 times, respectively.

The times of Enowitz, Cannavo, and Stiles were just seconds off each other and just seconds off the times of the Bulldogs top two finishers. According to Saretsky, the strategy all along was to have Harvard’s fourth and fifth guys stay even with the Bulldog’s one and two.

“They came in as a pack,” Saretsky said. “I was thrilled with the way our young guys came out.”

The road was not as easy for the women’s side. Princeton’s scorers took the top five spots. Harvard’s second-place effort was led by sophomore Claire Richardson, whose 17:52.62-time placed her sixth. Classmate Jamie Olson took the next spot at 18:04.97. The win for the nationally ranked No. 7 Tigers was their sixth consecutive capture of the Cheever Memorial Trophy. The win for Princeton ties the Crimson’s 1980-’85 consecutive win streak.

“At this point in the game, Princeton’s a really strong team,” women’s captain Kelsey LeBuffe said. “They have a much older team than we do. But our goal with this meet was to hand Yale a solid loss and get closer to Princeton. While they may have their hands on our streak right now, we have really strong freshman and sophomore classes, both showing a lot of potential.”

The weekend races provided a good test for the young Harvard squad. With 12 sophomores and 10 freshmen filling the ranks on the women’s side, Saturday’s finish was an optimistic place to start for a team, which, according to Saretsky, has “much better things left to come.”

Likewise, the men’s side has 22 of 29 roster spots held by freshmen and sophomores, and to take the trophy with a relatively young unit bodes well for the season to come.

“It’s a much more alarming thing when you lose seniors from the guys side,” Saretsky said. “Especially since Yale was so senior heavy. Before the race, I was looking at their roster and they had four seniors in their top five. Regardless, our young guys stepped up, they weren’t intimidated.”

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