Track Closes Indoor Season with School Records

Riding the momentum of its team performance at the Ivy League Championships a week ago, the Harvard track and field team sent athletes to three different meets this weekend, notching a number of standout finishes.

After months of posting qualifying times for IC4As and ECACs, the Crimson split up, with the men heading to the BU Track and Tennis center for IC4As and the women taking on the ECAC field at the Reggie Lewis Center in Roxbury.

“Overall for the team, the Ivy League championships are a bigger focal point,” Harvard coach Jason Saretsky said. “When you get into that next level of competition...we just try to make the most of a great opportunity.”

The Crimson competitors did just that, breaking a pair of school records and winning an IC4A relay among some of the most talented teams in the region.

“It was a good way to close the season and get some good performances in,” women’s captain Thea Lee said. “We were happy to end on a good note.”

ECAC CHAMPIONSHIPS

The women did not have to travel far to take on a number of unfamiliar competitors during the ECAC championships Saturday and yesterday. The women finished 16th in a field in which 51 teams scored, riding the strong performances of a pair of freshmen and a relay team.

Rookie Sydnie Leroy earned seventh in the pole vault with a mark of 3.55 meters, while classmate Olivia Weeks posted the top individual finish, taking third in the triple jump after a leap of 12.21 meters.

“Olivia had a little trouble getting to the board, but when she hit it, she hit it well,” Saretsky said. “She had the biggest jump of her collegiate career.”

Sophomore Nicole Cochran also had a strong performance in the mile, taking fourth place after a disappointing showing at Heptagonals.

“[Cochran] is the type of athlete that runs her best at championship time,” Saretsky said. “She made a tactical mistake that cost her points [at Heps], so it was great to see her bounce back and place as high as she did.”

But perhaps the strongest effort came from a group of Harvard women, as Lee, junior Claire Richardson, and freshmen Carlyle Davis and Melissa Bellin broke the school record in the distance medley relay en route to a third-place finish. The four Crimson runners crossed the line in a cumulative 11:34.03.

“We were really excited,” Lee said. “We all ran the best leg that we possibly could, so it was a really good showing.”

IC4A CHAMPIONSHIPS

Not to be outdone, the men’s squad enjoyed success of its own at IC4As Saturday and yesterday. The distance medley again proved to be Harvard’s greatest strength, as six runners contributed to the event. After sophomores Darcy Wilson and Brian Paison and rookies Jeff Homer and Jeremy Gilmour posted the fastest preliminary time in the relay, juniors Brian Hill and Dan Chenoweth stepped in to replace the second-years, boosting the team to a first-place finish in the finals—just seconds off the Crimson record. The time of 9:52.66 gave the Harvard men the victory by nearly three seconds.

“[In the preliminaries] the guys rocked it, and today we came in even hotter,” Hill said. “Even better is that all six of us who were involved are returning next year, so we’re going to be looking to knock on the door of the [school] record.”

The victory proved especially sweet for Chenoweth, who had come in as runner-up at IC4As the past two years.

“The distance medley is sort of like ‘Captain Planet,’ because you have to have all the elements together,” Chenoweth said. “[Winning] was definitely better than second. It was a pretty big meet, so it was cool that we put together a good race.”

The meet was so large, in fact, that some Harvard competitors stood out despite finishing out of the top 10. Freshman Ablorde Ashigbi finished 13th in the weight throw while sophomore John Dingus broke his own school record in the 400-meter race with a time of 47.73—but finished one spot out of the finals.

COLUMBIA LAST CHANCE MEET

Hill and Davis logged extra time on the track this weekend, traveling to New York City to compete at the Columbia Last Chance Meet at the Armory Track and Field Center on Friday.

Davis raced outside her normal distance, but managed a fourth-place finish in the 800-meter race with a time of 2:09.17. Hill—right at home at the 800 distance—won the same event in 1:49.96.

—Staff writer Max N. Brondfield can be reached at mbrondf@fas.harvard.edu.