Harvard Takes on Challengers at HYP Meet

After winning the Battle of Beantown last weekend, the Harvard men’s and women’s track and field teams look to continue their success as they take on Yale and Princeton tomorrow.

Travelling to the Tiger’s Jadwin Gymnasium for the annual HYP Meet, both squads will face two of the top teams in the league.

With wins in last Saturday’s morning events, the men claimed a decisive victory against its local rivals while the women clinched the Beantown title with a first place finish in the 4x400 relay final.

Other highlights included co-captain Jack Brady finishing first in the shot put and junior Brian Hill and co-captain Justin Grinstead’s one-two finish in the 500-meter run. On the women’s side, freshman Carlyle Davis captured the 500-meter run for the Crimson.

“I felt that both teams competed very well,” Harvard head coach Jason Saretsky said. “It was great to come away with the double win.”

But Harvard will be facing tougher competition tomorrow against the Tigers and the Bulldogs. The Princeton men finished first at the Sykes-Sabock Challenge last weekend while the Yale men topped the Crimson in this event a year ago.

“I felt very good about the meet on Saturday,” said Princeton men’s head coach Fred Samara. “I’m happy to host the meet, and it will be a lot of fun. It will be a competitive meet, but we’ve won handily in the past.”

The women’s team, which came out ahead at last year’s meet, is similarly prepared to compete against its rivals and ready for the challenge of tougher competitors.

“We’re definitely excited to compete on Saturday,” said women’s team co-captain Thea Lee. “It’s a big tradition and rivalry for us. We’re very set on defending our title.”

Yet to defeat their Ivy League rivals, both sides also know that they will have to rely on their training and improvements if they hope to pull out another double victory.

“We’ve been training consistently all through J-Term,” Lee said. “We have dedicated ourselves to working hard and it will show this weekend.”

“We’re focusing more on speed, trying to taper down into race speed, not heavy endurance workouts,” Grinstead said.

Harvard’s competition is also going to face a few challenges, especially Princeton, with a few Tigers coming back from injury.

“We’ve had a few people with injuries and we’ll be bringing some guys back this weekend,” Samara said. “We have a very talented young team. We hope to start off with the weight throw, then the shot put, and keep rolling from that point.”

It is going to be a tough matchup for all three teams though, with the win coming down to the wire. Each squad has its strengths, but there are a few events that will prove to be close-calls.

“Princeton has a very strong distance program,” Lee said. “It will be where we need to step up the most. I have full confidence in the sprints and jumps and I think the deciding factor will be the distance races.”

Lee finished second in the 800-meter run last weekend with a time of 2:13.76, her indoor personal best.

“I’m hoping to improve on that and get as many points for the team as I can,” Lee said. “Yale has a very competitive 800 runner, so I want to give her a run for her money.”

Even though they’re facing two of their toughest competitors this weekend, both the men’s and the women’s teams have high hopes that they can pull off the win and continue the success they have been seeing this year.

“We’re really looking to take down Yale,” Grinstead said. “We were able to beat Yale at Heps [Heptagonal Championships] last year. We’ve beaten Yale and like that feeling, and we have a strong chance against Princeton too.”