Need for Speed: Track and Field’s Runaway Season

After yet another historic season in which multiple school and conference records were broken in both individual and team events, the Harvard track and field team ran away with this year’s Team of the Year.

In perhaps their most successful season of recent memory, the 2024-25 squad cemented itself in the record books through grueling training and — more importantly — a powerful team culture that permeates through the locker room.

The success for this year’s team started a little bit earlier than usual — on a track that sits over three thousand miles from Cambridge. Senior distance runner Graham Blanks competed in the men’s 5,000-meter event at the 2024 Paris Olympics in early August, carrying a strong qualifying performance into the final and placing ninth in his Olympic debut.

His strong performance set the tone for the team’s strong season all around, and while he has not competed formally for the team this year, to him, not much has changed.

“It’s not like I’m some shining hero in the locker room, I’m just another guy. We’re all friends, we all train together, we all eat and study together, so it’s not like I’m just some superstar,” Blanks said.

Regardless of his status on the team, he highly values the team culture that surrounds the program.

“College programs are the one place where you have 20 guys all doing the same thing under the same coach,” he said. “It doesn’t really get much better than this in terms of training. No doubt I was going to continue to train with the team because they still push me to be better every day.”

Senior sprinter Chloe Fair also said the constant motivation from teammates has been a core feature of her experience on the tem..

“It’s easier to succeed when everyone around you also wants to succeed,” Fair said. “I think there’s definitely an energy of a high level of success and competition. The team’s pretty competitive, which I think we’ve really seen this year especially, that’s been really fun.”

That success came early for the women’s indoor squad this season, who put out excellent performances in January’s Terrier Classic as they broke school records in the 800 meters and the 4x400 relay. With her time of 2:00.79 in the 800 meters, senior Victoria Bossong recorded the third fastest time in the nation, which gave her a spot in March’s NCAA Indoor National Championships. After having the fastest time in the preliminary competition, Bossong recorded a 2:00:93 en route to a second place finish in the final.

In the 4x400 relay, Bossong, Fair, senior Izzy Goudros and sophomore Sophia Gorriaran, who set the school record in the Terrier Classic competition, would go on to reset their school record a staggering four times in the event throughout the season. At the NCAA Indoor National Championships, they finished in sixth place, rounding out a dominant season that rewrote the record books.

The women’s team finished eleventh overall in the Indoor Championships, the highest of any non-power conference school and the highest in school history. In addition, every single woman who participated at the event was named a first team All-American.

On the Men’s indoor side, performances have been strong from the start as well. At the Crimson Elite competition in February, sophomore Timi Esan broke his own school record in the men’s 60 meters with a time of 6.68, and later at the Ivy League Heptagonal Indoor championships in March, senior Kenneth Ikeji — the reigning national champion — won his third straight conference title in the men’s weight throw event.

At a USATF event in February, sophomore Tito Alofe broke his own school record in the men’s high jump at 2.23 meters.

As they headed into the outdoor season, the success kept coming.

At the Jim Click shootout in April, sophomore Marta Amani bested her school record in the women’s long jump with a 6.31-meter measurement, more than half a foot further than her old record. In addition, the men’s 4x100m team set a school record of 39.40 behind freshmen Harlow Tong, LeRoy Horton and Jordan Coleman as well as junior Jonas Clarke.

Later in April, the Crimson continued to set new records across multiple events, with the men’s 4x100 relay setting another school record at 39.34 and sophomore Milina Wepwié resetting her Ivy League record in the women’s discus with a throw of 59.75 meters. Freshman Harlow Tong also set a school record in the men’s 400m with a time of 46.55.

At the Ivy League Heptagonal Outdoor Championships in May, both the men’s and women’s teams finished in second place.

In a season that saw dozens of school records broken and countless stellar performances across the men and women, many players attributed the success to the culture the team has built over the past few years.

“Overall, it’s just been a really conducive environment of improving at my own rate. I think we’re all really supportive,” Alofe said. “The men’s and women’s teams are also very close, so overall, I’d say it’s a very solid team culture that’s been a big part of my career.”

The support within the team doesn’t just stop at the training.

At a meet earlier in the year when the women’s indoor 4x400-meter relay squad needed to shave time to ensure an invite to nationals, a bus of more than 50 team members showed up to Boston University to cheer their teammates on in a crucial race.

“They lined the whole inside track so that even though there was no one we were racing against, it was so much energy that we ran the time we needed to do and we qualified,” said Fair.

Even with all the success and broken records from this team, as Fair prepares to graduate, this moment of camaraderie stands out as a highlight of the program.

“I’ve never felt that level of support and encouragement, and it was just absolutely insane,” she said. “I think I’ll remember that for the rest of my career.”

– Staff Writer Connor Castañeda can be reached at connor.castaneda@thecrimson.com.