Harvard Track Enjoys Slew of Personal Bests at IC4A and ECAC Meets

With the end of the school year comes studying for finals, finishing up papers, and packing up the dorm rooms. But it also signals the near end of this year’s track season, and with that, the ECAC and IC4A Championships.

This past weekend, those who qualified traveled to Princeton, N.J., to represent Harvard in the meets. The men’s team tied for 51st in the IC4A competition, while the women finished 31st in the ECAC meet.

“I was pleased with the performances,” Crimson coach Jason Saretsky said. “It’s not easy to bounce back the week after the Ivy League championships and to go out there and compete again, especially being in the middle of final exams, but I thought we had a couple of really strong performances.”

One of these came from junior Claire Richardson, who led Harvard with a second-place finish in the 3K run and crossed the line at 9:23.03, breaking a 21-year old school record by over two seconds. She was supported by freshman Mary Hirst, who took eighth in the high jump with a clearance of 1.65 meters, and sophomore Nicole Sliva, who placed 14th in the heptathlon.

On the men’s side, freshman Fedor Garin finished eighth in the pole vault after clearing a height of 4.80 meters. Freshman Edward Brucker and co-captain Jack Brady placed 12th and 13th in the shot put, respectively, while Brady followed this performance with an eighth-place mark in the hammer throw of 58.21 meters.

Two 800-meter runners, junior Brian Hill and freshman Carlyle Davis, also clocked in their lifetime bests in the event.

“I thought everyone did really well,” Brady said. “People walked away really happy from the meet.”

“Everyone that competed gave a great effort,” Saretsky said. “It was a good performance to end the season, and we have a number of athletes that are going to be continuing on to the regional meet [in two weeks].”

These NCAA Regional Championship meets, held in Greensboro, N.C., will take place May 28-29.