Track and Field Delivers Record-Breaking Performances at Two Meets

Continuing where she left off during the indoor season, Harvard track and field sophomore Nikki Okwelogu shattered her own Ivy League shot put record for the second week in a row, highlighting a weekend full of success for the team.

With just three weeks left to prepare and train until the Ivy League Outdoor Heptagonals, the Crimson teams split up once again, sending squads to the UVA Challenge—facing off against some of the best in the nation—as well as the MIT Sean Collier Invite.

“I was really proud of the way they competed,” Harvard coach Jason Saretsky said. “It was great for them to see some competition they don’t normally see, get out of their comfort zone a little bit, and see some of the nation’s best.”

UVA CHALLENGE

Okwelogu led a successful contingent of field athletes, posting a 16.78 meter mark to edge out the competition and take home the women’s shot put invite title. The throw broke her own outdoor Ancient Eight record, continuing her record-setting season.

The sophomore was not the only successful field athlete on the weekend, as senior Taylor DuPont placed seventh in the shot put with a season best 12.2 meter mark. Classmate Hannah Mayer placed sixth in the javelin invite with a mark of 45.08.

On the men’s side, junior Spencer Lemons tied for fourth in the high jump with a height of 2.02 meters. The field athletes weren’t the only ones to achieve success this weekend, with various athletes demonstrating their talent on the track.

The female sprinters left their mark both on the record books and the meet, as senior Danielle Barbian finished seventh in the 100-meter dash and moved to fourth in the program record books with a 24.29 second performance in the 200 meter dash. Junior Christi Scott came close behind with an all-time fifth-best 24.39 mark.

The success continued in the 400 meter hurdles, where sophomore Jade Miller was edged for the title, finishing second with a time of 57.67. Classmate Jackie Modesett placed ninth with a personal best 59.87 mark, the fourth-best time in school history. Modesett recorded another personal best in the 100 meter hurdles, placing third in Harvard history with a time of 13.76.

Miller’s performance proved to be especially successful as the sophomore makes her way back from an injury which prevented her from running most of the indoor season.

“I’m really happy because I’m just coming off an injury,” Miller said. “It’s really nice to get back to my race and feel confident running it despite having to stop running for an elongated period of time before this [race].”

In the 4x400 relay, Miller, junior Madison Hansen, Modesett and Scott combined to take home a 3:42.67 finish, the sixth-fastest in Harvard history.

In the distance portion, sophomore Sarah Gillespie ran a personal best 4:21.04 in the 1,500 meter run to establish herself. She was joined in the record books by seniors Molly Renfer and Whitney Thornburg, whose performances in the 5,000 meter race notched them the fifth and sixth-place finishes in the Crimson record books with times of 16:25.83 and 16:27.18, respectively.  Rookie Courtney Smith set a collegiate personal record with a 16:46.74 finish.

On the men’s side, junior Tom Purnell’s 3:47.99 1,500-meter performance ranked him eighth in program history, while freshman Gabe Montague set a personal record with a time of 3:53.29.

In the multi-events, junior Mark Hill set a personal record for the decathlon with a point total of 6,008, the fourth highest in the Harvard record books. In the women’s heptathlon, Hansen’s score of 5,070 was good for fourth place overall and classmate Allison Morrison set a personal best with a score of 4.972, the seventh-highest in program history.

The strong all-around showing at UVA reaffirmed the program’s focus on maintaining a strong squad all around, which Saretsky was pleased with.

“I think it shows the depth of our team,” Saretsky said. “We take a lot of pride in being a complete track and field program, so we want to be able to be competitive in all the events and we were able to display that this past weekend.”

MIT SEAN COLLIER INVITE

Competing down the river at neighboring MIT, the Crimson had a five athletes place in the top-10.

Sophomore Alex Kirby and freshman Randy Raymond placed seventh and eighth, respectively, in the 400-meter run, while Kirby also placed tenth in the javelin.

The other top-10 finishes of the day were proved by senior Fred Ward, who took eighth in the 1,500, rookie Tomoya Hasegawa—ninth in the 100-meter dash—and freshman Lucia Alexander, who took fourth in the women’s high jump.

Harvard continues its season next week at the prestigious Penn Relays, which attracts a crowd upwards of 40,000 people and the Brown Springtime Invitational, before heading down to Philadelphia just two weeks later to compete at Heps.

With Heps comes pressure for both teams, as the men look to take home the title while the women look to defend it. While the expectations are high, Miller believes that the support the athletes have for each other—as well as the balance shown this weekend—will play a big role in preparing the team for the upcoming challenge.

“I would say the [team] is very supportive,” Miller said. “We all understand that one person alone can’t win this team title, we all understand that we’re all parts of something bigger and better.”

—Staff writer Julio Fierro can be reached at julio.fierro@thecrimson.com.