W.Harriers Fare Well at Brown Invite

Harvard's women's track team received a good "tune-up" at an unconventional invitational at Brown this weekend.

The meet was unconventional in the sense that no team scores or placings were kept, and an emphasis was placed on getting the teams prepared for more significant, end-of-season meets (e.g. HEPS) which will take place over the next two weekends.

"It was definitely a different sort of meet," co-captain Kristina Lynch said. "Although there were a lot of good teams there, the emphasis wasn't really on winning as a team or competing against other teams. Everyone was focusing on working on certain events and giving people experience."

"It definitely wasn't a real intense meet", she added. "It wasn't one of the more important ones."

Although no team accolades were handed out, individual honors were awarded.

In this way, the Crimson fared quite well, despite the appearance in the meet of some high-caliber competition.

Leading the way for the Crimson were four first-place finishers: junior Shireen Boulos in the 200-meter run; Lynch in the 100; junior Jen Kearney in the 800; and Meredith Fitzgerald in the 3,000.

Although no scores were kept, Harvard's top competition in the meet came from Brown, the meet's host and the team with the best opportunity to knock off the formidable Crimson at HEPS next weekend at Columbia.

"It was sort of weird with Brown," Lynch said. "A lot of times when a team hosts a meet, they don't participate or at least their top people don't--they usually run the meet."

But Brown didn't," she added. "They had a lot of good people running. It sort of gave us a chance to see how we might go up against them next week."

HEPS is annually the focal point of the team's season. It is the final team meet and, because all of the Ivy League teams will be there, it doubles as a league championship meet. It also sometimes determines which athletes will go on to nationals.

"It 's our big weekends and this is our big week of preparation for it," Lynch said. "Our chances are good, but Brown will be tough."

The team defeated Brown earlier in the season at a triangular at Dartmouth.

It was the first time the Crimson had beaten the Bears, the winner of the indoor HEPS this winter, in two years.