Relay Teams Pace Strong Performances in Pair of Weekend Meets

No one ran faster than Usain Bolt, but the Harvard track and field team did not disappoint at the 116th annual Penn Relays.

The Crimson recorded some impressive finishes at the historic meet, which brings together the world’s best high school, collegiate, and national runners for a three-day competition that featured races including the world’s fastest man and his Jamaican teammates this year.

“The Penn Relays is a pretty impressive meet,” said men’s co-captain Jack Brady. “There were a lot of fans, it was a great atmosphere, and everyone thought it was a great event.”

On Thursday, it was the Harvard women’s distance medley relay team that stole the show, shattering a school record while winning a collegiate title.

The team of freshmen Melissa Bellin and Carlyle Davis, junior co-captain Thea Lee, and classmate Claire Richardson finished with a time of 11:21.31, topping second-place Texas by just one second. The team beat the former Crimson record, set last year, by 19 seconds.

“The Penn Relays isn’t the most ideal environment in terms of race preparation, warming up, that sort of thing,” Harvard coach Jason Saretsky said. “But I thought the ladies did a great job getting out there and competing.”

On Friday, Harvard continued to turn in strong performances.

Brady placed third out of 31 in the Eastern Collegiate shot put, with a 16.25-meter throw, and freshman teammate Edward Brucker finished fifth with a 16.05-meter toss.

“I was happy with my place, because I didn’t have a medal from the Penn Relays,” Brady said. “In terms of my distance, it was a fine throw, not particularly good or bad for me. I thought overall it was productive.”

Also on the men’s side, the 4x200-meter relay team—co-captain Justin Grinstead, sophomores Jonathan Meminger and John Dingus, and junior John Fahnestiel—finished 28th out of 69 teams.

On Saturday, another Harvard women’s team turned in a dominant performance, with the quartet of Davis, Lee, sophomore Meghan Looney, and junior Hilary May winning the 4x800-meter relay in 8:46.98. Their time topped 25 other teams, including second-place Dartmouth by nearly six seconds. The team fell just three seconds short of breaking the 13-year-old meet record in the event, held by Penn State.

“It was really fun to see them compete,” Saretsky said. “Lee did an outstanding job getting us into position, and then each athlete ran really strong legs.”

BROWN SPRINGTIME INVITATIONAL

At the Brown Springtime Invitational yesterday afternoon, both the men’s and women’s teams continued to record head-turning performances.

Sophomore Tyler Funk won the men’s high jump, with a leap of 1.96 meters, and freshman Jakob Lindaas finished first in the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:41.60. It was only Lindaas’s second time participating in the event.

“I was able to kind of push it near the end a little bit more,” Lindaas said. “And fortunately I was able to take the lead and get the win.”

In the long jump, Crimson senior Graham Infinger and freshman teammate Kenneth Wang Kan finished 1-2 with leaps of 6.55 and 6.48 meters, respectively.

Brady and junior teammate Eric Clayman also turned in strong performances in the hammer throw, finishing third and fourth, respectively. Brady bested his performance at last year’s Brown Springtime Invitational by nearly seven meters and set a career record with his 59.60-meter throw.

The Harvard women dominated the high jump, with freshman Mary Hirst and junior Dina Emde finishing 1-2, with respective leaps of 1.70 and 1.65 meters. It was their second-consecutive 1-2 finish in the event, after doing so at Yale last Saturday.

“I just focused and talked myself into believing I could jump over, and it worked out,” Hirst said. “I was very excited...I knew I made it even before I hit the mat.”

Junior Jessica Fronk also took first place with her 43.48-meter javelin heave.

And in the 100-meter dash, freshman Jasmine Cho came in third overall with a time of 12.59 seconds.

Both Brady and Saretsky said they felt the Springtime Invitational—the team’s final regular-season meet—would serve as good preparation for the playoff competitions, beginning with the Heptagonal Championships on May 8, that lie ahead.

“It was a long weekend for us, but we accomplished a lot,” Brady said. “We got a lot of work in, and I feel like we’re definitely ready for Heps.”