Cross Country Opens Season at Annual HYP Meet

The Harvard men’s and women’s cross country teams formally opened the 2017 season at The Course at Yale, competing against two league rivals in the annual Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet.

Competing in a dual meet against the Bulldogs, the Crimson men placed second overall, with junior Collin Price and senior Tyler Spear finishing in second and third place, respectively. The women finished third overall against Yale and Princeton, led by senior Elianna Shwayder in fifth place and freshman Abbe Goldstein in sixth place.

“We went out with a very specific idea of what we wanted to do and just focused on running our own race and executing coach’s plan,” Spear said. “The team is the middle of a very heavy training cycle and so we’re mostly concentrating on making sure to take care of our day-to-day routine so that once the championship season rolls around, we’re ready to go.”

Spear and teammate Price both recorded their best Harvard career finishes in a cross-country race on Friday. Also recording strong finishes on the men's side were freshman Matthew Pereira, who finished eighth overall, followed by senior Louis Colson in 12th and fellow freshman John Fish in 15th place.

“Particularly excited about the performance of two of our freshmen, Matt Pereira and John Fish, who finished as our third and fifth runners in their first ever collegiate races,” Spear said. “They’re total gamers and are going to develop into big time stars over the course of their careers at Harvard.”

In the women’s race, Shwayder’s fifth place finish marked her best collegiate finish at the Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet. In addition to Shwayder’s strong run and freshman Abbe Goldstein’s break-out debut, senior Fiona Davis also scored points for the Crimson in 18th overall, along with junior Miranda Sadler and freshman Tessa Medrano, who were 27th and 28th.

“HYP was a low-key opportunity to work on our mental approaches to racing. We made a plan to run relaxed and together during the first half and then increase the pressure over the course of the second half of the race,” Shwayder said. “We're gradually working into racing and we're not placing a lot of stake in these early season measurements. Rather, we're focused on training through these races to be ready come the end of October and November.”

Next Friday, both the Harvard men’s and women’s teams will compete in the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown held at the Crimson’s home course, Franklin Park.

“Overall, the team is pleased with the showing. We raced a light group, and have yet to fold in about half of our healthy runners,” Spear said. “We’re excited to see how the team does on Friday at the Battle of Beantown and especially once we start to get into the groove of racing during October and November.”