M. Track Posts Big Win, W. Track Falters

Ah, track. A sport for masochists. You practice, you sweat, you practice, you sweat, you practice, you sweat. Occasionally you shower.

For what? Several minutes or seconds of adrenalin, stretched over 55 meters or two miles.

For the Harvard men's track team, some of that hard work paid off this Saturday at Gordon Track. In a meet that--in the words of pole Vaulter Steve Brannon--Harvard expected to win by "a pessimistic one point," the thinclads annihilated Northeastern 95-50.

"I think overall that the team did excellently," said Brannon, who won his event by a handy six inches. "It turned out that we beat them by nearly double their score, which was unbelievable.

The Harvard women's track team did not fare quite as well. With star sophomore runner Karen Goetze unable to compete due to a calf injury and still lots of rust leftover from the holiday break, the women were upstaged by a strong Northeastern team, 74-44.

"We didn't do as well as we would have liked too," senior Meredith FitzGerald said. "We knew it was going to be a tough meet. We knew that they had a lot of depth."

The men got off to a particularly strong start. After the 35-pound weight throw, in which junior Stephen McCauley was outdistanced by two feet, the Crimson ripped off first places in five straight events. The troika of freshman Josh Nicholson (6'4"), junior Terrence Mann (6'2") and senior Joseph Ghartey (6'2") combined for a high jump sweep and five points in the scorebook.

After Brannon (15'9") and senior Trevor Barcelo (12'9.5") took first and third respectively in the pole vault, sophomore distance runner Ian Carswell turned in an inspirational performance in the mile, out-kicking a Northeastern runner at the end of the race by two-tenths of a second.

"We knew Northeastern had one very strong runner," Carswell said. "We didn't know if he was going to run. After my race, however, we knew exactly who it was."

"Ian gave it his all and ended up winning," Brannon said. "It was an outstanding performance."

In the 55-meter hurdles, the Crimson again sandwiched a Northeastern runner, with junior Ray Wynter (7.8 seconds) and Ghartey (8.0 seconds) placing first and third respectively.

Another Harvard sweep--this time in the 400-meter dash--gave the Crimson a 40-14 lead and a commanding control of the match. Junior Jeff Pressman (50.7 seconds), senior Mike Evers (50.9 seconds) and sophomore Jerome McCluskey (51.7 seconds) all placed.

After a brief hiccup in the shot-put, where the Crimson had to settle for third place, Harvard took first place in seven out of the next 10 events, including both relays.

While junior Shayne Mauricette racked up first in the 55-meter (6.3 seconds) and 200-meter (22.5 seconds), senior Collier Henry (1:59.8) and junior Brian Walsh (8:46.1) in the 800-meter and 3000-meter, respectively. Freshman Husani Barnwell (6.88 meters) placed first in the long jump.

"It was very impressive," Carswell said. "Pretty much across the board, we looked strong in every event. I can't say enough about how prepared everyone was for the meet. The performances that we laid down were just amazing."

Outperformed is how the Harvard women feel. Although the meet was reasonably close through the first five events, which were highlighted by a Crimson sweep of the 400-meter, the Huskies really turned it on in the middle of the meet. In four straight events--the 60-meter, 800-meter, the 200-meter and the shot-put--Northeastern placed first and second.

The flurry of first and second places proved deadly; a small 28-17 Northeastern edge turned into a insurmountable 68-22 advantage.

However, there were some bright spots. The Crimson swept the 400-meter race and the 3000-meter race. Harvard also took the mile and the two-mile relay.

"A lot of people were pretty rusty after coming after break and we had only had two practices after the break," FitzGerald said. "We just weren't going into the meet full steam by any means."