Women's Track and Field Captures Fifth Straight Beantown Challenge Win

Harvard’s Gordon Indoor Track was busy this weekend hosting the Harvard Multi-Meet on Friday and the annual Beantown Challenge on Saturday. The Crimson men’s and women’s track and field teams had an impressive home opener with the women’s team placing first in the Beantown Challenge for the the fifth consecutive year and the men’s team placing third. There were a slew of personal and season bests among the 15 first-place finishes for Harvard.

BEANTOWN CHALLENGE

The Crimson rounded out its weekend holding the Beantown Challenge at home for the ninth straight year. Harvard competed against Ivy league rival Brown, and local participants UMass Amherst, Stonehill, and Boston College, among others.

“It’s a very comfortable environment—it’s people you have seen in competition before, and all your friends get to come and watch you perform,” captain Paige Kouba said. “It’s a great race to start the season, and holding on to the Beanpot Trophy is a nice confidence booster early on in the year.”

In sprints, the Crimson women dominated the field with freshmen Ngozi Musa and Gabby Thomas placing first in the 60 and 200 meter dash, respectively. Both ran collegiate bests with times of 7.56 and 24.04 seconds. Even with Thomas in only the third meet of her collegiate career, her 60 meter dash lands second in the Harvard record books and sixth in Ivy League history, only hundredths of a second away from setting a new school record. Thomas continued to impress with a second-place finish behind teammate Musa in the 60 meter dash at a time of 7.63 seconds.

There were two 1-2-3 finishes in the 200 meter dash and the 60 meter hurdles. Behind Thomas’s record setting pace in the 200 were senior Autumne Franklin and classmate Christi Scott, respectively. Franklin also took the victory in the 60 meter hurdles with juniors Jackie Modesett and Jade Miller ensuring the podium sweep.

Miller then ran for gold in the 500 meter in 1:12.95, almost three seconds faster than Boston College’s Molly McCabe in second place. Scott continued to contribute to the women’s victory with a personal record of 57.03 seconds in the 400 meter, earning her second place.

For the distance runs, Kouba ran for a personal record of 2:49.70 and first place in the 1000 meter, outpacing the competition by a whopping six seconds.

Four victories in the field events also helped to keep the women’s Beanpot trophy in Cambridge. Junior Raegan Nizdil won the high jump at 1.7 meters. Sophomore Floriane Kameni set a new personal best in the triple jump at 11.85 meters, earning her first. Silver was freshman Bola Hambolu’s color this weekend with two second place finishes in the long jump and triple jump. Freshman Nicole Trenchard and senior Lexie Schachne both cleared 3.45 meters in the pole vault, but Trenchard took home first.

“Today felt like we were a very unified team for the first time,” Kouba said. “It was great to see everyone come together.”

For the men’s team, junior Julian Nunally had a standout performance in shot put, picking up first place honors. He secured a new personal best with a 17.61 meter throw, completely obliterating his old record.

“Julian Nunally threw a personal best of eight feet in the final throw of the heat,” co-captain James Lin—a former Crimson sports editor—said, “which is absolutely massive in shot put standards.”

In the other men’s field events, junior Josh Whitener finished second in the weight throw, 0.16 meters behind Brown’s Owen Russell. Senior Spencer Lemons earned his second victory of the season in the high jump clearing 1.99 meters. Like the women vaulters, freshman Ian West and junior Andrew Roney both soared at 4.80 meters, but the gold went to West with one fewer miss in the competition.

Sophomore Alex Moore took home first and a new personal record in the 200 meter with a time of 22.50 seconds. Senior David Gawlas was right behind in third. Sophomore Jay Hebert jumped to gold in the 60 meter hurdles in 8.21 seconds.

In the distance races, freshman Kieran Tuntivate finished the mile in first after pulling away from the competition, completing the final 400 meters in 58 seconds. Senior Malik Epps and sophomore Gabe Montague placed second in the 800 and 1,000 meter races, respectfully.

HARVARD MULTI-MEET

The Crimson opened up its track for 2016 with the Harvard Multi-Meet, consisting of the women’s pentathlon and the first four events of the men’s heptathlon. It was the season debut for Harvard’s pentathlon and heptathlon athletes.

Last year, senior Madison Hansen captured the pentathlon title, but injury kept her from competing for a repeat gold. Hansen only competed in the high jump where she placed eighth. With Hansen out, UMass Lowell’s Kerstin Darsney finished in first with 3,662 points.

Mark Hill had a well-rounded performance, competing in only the first four events of the heptathlon. Hill finished first in the 60 meter dash, while taking home the bronze in the long jump and shot put events.

“It was a very, very positive week,” Lin said, “And a good step forward on our roads to Heps.”

—Staff writer Ginny Miller can be reached at ginny.miller@thecrimson.com.