School Record Falls as Track Tops Yale

The Harvard track and field team downed Yale on Saturday at the Culver Field-Dwyer Track in New Haven, Conn., as both the men’s and women’s sides bested the Bulldogs by over 20 points each.

The win continued a streak of dominance, both throughout the Ivy League this year and in the Annual Harvard-Yale meet. The women, who beat Yale 89-69, won their sixth straight meet title while the men, who won 97-64, did so for the third consecutive time. The meet came after several Crimson runners and throwers competed across the nation for several weekends.

“This was the first opportunity for us to all come together as a team,” Harvard coach Jason Saretsky said. “We’ve been going a lot of different directions, trying to take advantage of the warm weather in the South and West. It’s really exciting to see both the men and women come away with team victories.”

A flurry of sprinters topped the podiums to give the Crimson a significant points advantage.

“Our sprinters and jumpers did an outstanding job and really dominated on Saturday,” Saretsky said.

Harvard women finished 1-2-3 in the 200-meter dash, 800-meter run and 100-meter hurdles. In the 800, sophomore Erika Veidis won the event by nearly five seconds with a time of 2:05.92, setting a new personal best and notching the second-fastest time in school history.

“She’s had a phenomenal indoor season, not just winning the Ivy League Championship but making it to Nationals as a sophomore with an outstanding performance,” Saretksy said. “It’s only going to get better for her.”

Freshmen Christi Scott and Autumne Franklin took first and second place in the 200-meter, followed by sophomore Gabrielle Scott, who also won the 400-meter.

Franklin continued her rookie success as she won the 100-meter hurdles in 14.48 seconds, trailed closely by junior Olivia Abbate’s 14.57 second-place finish. Freshman Madison Hansen registered the only other sub 15-second run.

Harvard athletes swept the medals off the track as well. Sophomore Mary Hirst, who also won the javelin, cleared 1.65 meters for the win in the high jump. Sophomore Ann Giebelhaus and freshman Allison Morrison both cleared 1.60 meters for second and third.

Senior Shannon Watt captured the discus competition with a 43.79-meter throw. Junior Adabelle Ekechuwu, who is also a Crimson multimedia and arts editor, won the hammer throw with a toss of 52.65 meters, over three meters further than the second place finisher, Harvard sophomore Taylor DuPont.

Sprinters were dominant on the men’s side as well. Junior Connor McCarthy won both the 100 and 200-meter dashes with respective times of 10.58 and 21.61 seconds. Senior Jeff Homer recorded a win in the 400-meter with 49.19 seconds, just beating teammate Jared Kadich, who finished .37 seconds later.

Sophomore Jarvis Harris set a new school record in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.13 seconds. His time was over a second faster than second place Daniel Kemp of Yale.

“I’ve been definitely working toward beating the school record,” Harris said. “I knew I would get it but I just had to keep training and going after it. Trusting in my coaches helped me do it…. I was definitely looking forward to aiding my team and getting to the higher level because over the past year we’ve become a lot more competitive and a lot hungrier.”

The men also captured four wins in field events. Senior Fedor Garin and Mark Hill went 1-2 in the high jump, as did sophomore Malcolm Mason Rodriguez and Harris in the triple jump.

In the shot put, Crimson throwers Ben Glauser, Dustin Broke and Edward Brucker swept the podium. Both Glauser and Brode broke the 17-meter mark. Garin and fellow seniors Jacques Barjon and Nico Weiler grabbed first, second and third places in the javelin throw.

“Traditionally our throwers are our rock that we lean upon,” Saretsky said. “They put up a decent amount of points right there and have really been gearing things towards some outstanding marks.”

After defeating the Bulldogs, Harvard athletes will now team up with Yale to take on a combined Oxford/Cambridge team on Tuesday at home.

—Staff writer Cordelia F. Mendez can be reached at cordeliamendez@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter @CrimsonCordelia.