Athlete of the Week: Leakos and Hanley Lead Cross Country

After crossing the finish line first in the annual Harvard-Yale dual cross country meet during his sophomore season, James Leakos took second place in the event as a junior. On Saturday, the current senior once again topped the field with a convincing 18-second victory in the men’s race. And for junior Viviana Hanley in the women’s race, a victory meant something different—it was the first win of her Harvard career.

“Viviana had a great run—she led from start to finish and took control of the race with a really fast first mile and was able to cruise knowing the team had secured the victory and she had done her part,” Harvard coach Jason Saretsky said. “It was a great way to [earn her first career victory] against our historic rivals, especially since they beat us last time out.”

Hanley recognized that her mentality going into the race was one of the main drivers of her success and recognized the significance of her personal accomplishment.

“[The Harvard-Yale meet] was exciting, it was definitely a confidence booster and it was cool to go out there with the team and have everyone do well,” Hanley said. “As an upperclassman now, there’s more pressure, but also more potential…. I tried to use that in a positive way and went out into the race more confident than I had in the past [knowing] that I could potentially take the win.”

Even though Hanley led for entirety of the run, her winning mark of 17:56 outpaced the closest competitor by only a single second. A strong finish line push ensured that the Crimson women could put the past two years’ losses to Yale in the rearview mirror.

Complementing Hanley on the men’s side was Leakos, who led the way with a time of 23:32, 18 seconds ahead of classmate Maksim Korolev. The Crimson men swept the top five spots in the race en route to a convincing 15-42 victory.

After passing out following his first Harvard-Yale meet, Leakos has won the meet two of the past three years, improving his personal best time at the race by 49 seconds over that span.

“[After Saturday’s race,] physically, I was exhausted, as always, and crashed through the line, stumbled through the chute, collapsed on the grass. I felt mainly relief at first, to be finished, and then elation and excitement as I watched the guys come in,” Leakos said.

According to Saretsky, the team’s pre-race plan was to have a strong start, and push the pace in the middle of the race.

“[I was] really pleased with the way James competed today,” Saretsky said. “James has had a great time recently…. He’s very focused on having a great senior year and really just getting back to enjoying every day and pushing himself. This [race] can really be an important stepping stone for him for where he’s trying to go later in the season.”

Both Leakos and Hanley worked hard in the offseason to improve their strength and conditioning.

They cited their commitment as the main factor in explaining the early season success they have enjoyed and hope to build upon.

“Though [the season has] technically [just] started, I’m really about three and a half months into a six-month season,” Leakos said. “I’ve been building my mileage up ever higher, and the workouts just keep getting faster. I felt a lot of miles behind me on Saturday, and only five in front of me.”

After recording a 18:10.15 mark in last year’s Harvard-Yale race, which was good enough for 11th in a field of 29, Hanley set out to push herself even further and develop into an elite college runner. , The results have been overwhelmingly positive thus far.

She placed 20th in the NCAA Division I Northeast Regionals, then 118th at the National Championship in Lousiville, Ky. this past November. The summer also provided Hanley the chance to prepare to reach for even higher goals.

“I trained pretty hard this summer and the whole team has been pushing me,” Hanley said. “[The NCAA Division I National Championship] was an absolutely incredible experience and we definitely are hungry to go back this year and do a lot better than we did last year—[the Harvard-Yale meet] is just like a stepping stone to get there, though every meet matters.”