Host Crimson Makes Most of Challenge

When it comes to academics, the Ivy League’s standing is unquestioned. This weekend, the Harvard and Brown track and field teams proved they could top the competition in athletics, too.

In its first indoor home meet of the year, the Crimson teamed up with the Bears to face off against Army and Colgate in an Ivy League-Patriot League showdown on Saturday afternoon at the Gordon Indoor Track. The Ancient Eight representatives downed the Black Knights and the Raiders, 193-121, becoming the champions of the first-ever Harvard Challenge.

“I thought it was going to be a good challenge for us,” Crimson coach Jason Saretsky said. “Historically, Army has been a deep and talented team, and I thought being paired up with Colgate would make them a formidable opponent. It was a great start to the season.”

Harvard’s long-distance program stood out considerably over its Patriot League opponents. The Crimson cleaned up in the men’s 3000-meter run, in which senior Dan Chenoweth came out of the blocks flying and finished in 8:17.21, over seven seconds ahead of junior Christian Escareno from Brown.

Freshman Maksim Korolev and junior Darcy Wilson also helped out the Crimson, coming in third and fourth place, respectively.

Kristina Funahashi was the only Crimson runner to compete in the women’s 3000-meter run, which she won. Like Chenoweth, she finished over seven seconds ahead of her Colgate and Army competitors, crossing the finish line in 10:11.06.

In the men’s 1000-meter run, freshman Erik Kraus took home first for Harvard in 2:31.66, besting classmate Ryan Romain, who came in second in 2:31.77.

Freshman Peter Dolan wasn’t far behind, as he secured Harvard’s dominance in the race with a third-place time of 2:32.23. It was the Crimson’s best finish of the meet.

The women’s 5000-meter run turned out to be a Harvard-Colgate faceoff, with the Crimson coming out on top. Junior Kirsten Jorgensen and sophomore Stephanie Barnett went one-two in the race, earning the maximum number of points for their squad in the event.

Harvard also was dominant in the medley and relay events, sweeping the two distance medleys and winning the women’s 4x400-yard relay.

Juniors Robbie Paris and Brian Paison teamed up with freshmen Paul Koullick and James Leakos to win the men’s distance medley in 10:21.85, just under two seconds ahead of the squad from Army.

In the women’s distance medley, the Crimson blew its competitors out of the water. Co-captain Thea Lee, senior Hilary May, junior Lauren Leon, and freshman Natalia Paine finished in 12:06.94, almost a full minute ahead of second-place Army.

In the 4x400 relay, juniors Shannon Conway and Magda Robak and freshmen Christina Twicken and Meisha Brooks teamed up to take home another victory.

“I think that both relays we were very confident to put up a really good performance,” Lee said. “We were pleased with how the results turned out. For the 4x400, especially, I think it was exciting to see them run so fast so early in the season.”

The women’s squad also proved to be formidable opponents in the short-distance events. Twicken won in the 200-meter dash, and Brooks and Robak took first and second in the 500-meter dash.

Freshman Olivia Abbate easily finished with the best time in the preliminaries for the women’s 60-meter hurdles, but her opponent, freshman Susan Scavone of Brown, turned up the heat in the final event and took first, leaving Abbate to settle for silver.

“The nature of track and field is that you’re always looking to improve and get better,” Saretsky said. “Even when you win races, you want to do it just a little bit better. We’ve certainly got a lot of work to do before we take on some of the other teams this season, but we’re excited about it.”

—Staff writer Steven T.A. Roach can be reached at sroach@fas.harvard.edu.