Women Harriers Take H-Y-P

For Harvard's women's cross country team, it was about time.

For eight straight years the Crimson had failed to win the Harvard-Yale-Princeton triangular.

For eight straight years it had gone into the Heptagonals knowing that it wasn't the favorite.

And for eight straight years it had gone into the winter track season knowing that it hadn't measured up against its arch-rivals in the fall.

"We were tired of losing to them," sophomore Karen Goetze said. "While Heps is certainly the focus of our season, the H-Y-P meet has a lot of symbolic importance for us. It's the last meet before Heps, for one, and it is also just a great rivalry. We wanted to deliver."

And deliver they did. In one of its best races of the season, the Crimson women took the meet with 27 points. Princeton was second with 36, followed by Yale with 73.

"It was just a great race," freshman Margaret Angell said. "We knew going in that it would be a tough, but we also knew that we could win with a good race. We had to work for it, but we got it."

"I'm very happy with the way everything went," Goetze said. "We ran a very good team race--we stuck together and everyone finished pretty high."

Of course, the team didn't stick together for the whole race, Goetze, in particular, seemed to stray from the pack--not just her Crimson teammates, but the whole field. She finished first in the five-kilometer race in 17:58, winning by about 100 meters. It was best time by a Crimson runner in the three years the course has been in use.

"I was pleased with how I did," Goetze said. "I took the first few races of the season off and just started against Brown (September 30). I've been steadily improving ever since."

The rest of the squad has improved with her, too. Five Crimson runners finished in the meet's top 10. Angell finished fourth overall (18:34); Jenny Martin, sixth (18:47); Cricket Sheppard-Sawyer, seventh (18:51); and Jessica Mikszewski, ninth (18:52).

"We're getting better as a team," Angell said. "We're beginning to lessen the workout load in practice, and we're getting faster."

In the men's race, Harvard finished second. Princeton took the the men's competition with 30 points, while Yale finished third with 55.

Whereas the women's performance was solid from top to bottom, the men's race was characterized by a few brilliant Crimson performances, but more mediocre ones.

Sophomore Ian Carswell took first-place in the men's race by about 80 meters. He covered the five-mile course in 24:45. It, too, was a Harvard record.

Also finishing in the top 10 for Harvard were junior Brian Walsh, third (25:07); and junior co-captain Matt Bundle, eighth (25:21).

"It was a good race for us--we were pleased," Walsh said. "Everyone knew that Ian would win--he's been racing great lately, but the big surprise was Matt. He put in his best race ever."

"A couple people did really well, but the rest of the team wasn't quite where we wanted them to be," Carswell said. "We've got to improve as a team a little before Heps."