Track To Compete at Outdoor Heps

The Harvard men's and women's track teams will head to Philadelphia this weekend for the Outdoor Heptagonals--the biggest meet of the season.

Both teams should be capable of making up for the disappointments they have suffered through the outdoor season thus far.

The women suffered a shocking dual meet loss to Yale in their last major meet on April 22, which snapped an 11-year Crimson win streak against the Bulldogs.

Despite that loss, this his still been a banner year for Harvard women's track. The team had an undefeated indoor season, which culminated with the Crimson's first championship at Indoor Heps since 1990.

And while the outdoor season was sullied by the loss to Yale, the Crimson has still had its moments of triumph. Harvard defeated defending outdoor champion Brown 67-64 in a tri-meet earlier on April 8.

As for the men, the team will look to build on its solid performance against Yale. While the men narrowly lost 84-79, the meet proved that the team is still capable of competing at a high level this season.

Harvard Women

There's a simple reason why the Crimson failed to perform as well as expected against Yale last month: junior captain Brenda Taylor ran only one event.

"I'm still dealing with my hamstring," said Taylor, with respect to the injury that limited her during that Yale meet.

The decision to preserve Taylor for that meet will pay off, if she can come through with a performance like she put together at Indoor Heps, in which she won the 55-meter hurdle, the 55-meter run, and the 200-meter run.

In this weekend's Outdoor Heps at Penn's Franklin Field, Taylor will run in three individual events and two relays: the 100-meter run, the 100-meter high hurdles, the 400-meter intermediate hurdles, the 4x100 relay, and the 4x400 relay.

The Crimson will need another big performance from Taylor to have any chance of winning this meet.

The team suffered a big loss when it learned that junior Mary Unsworth, the team's top distance runner would be unable to compete this weekend.

"Mary's a tragedy," Taylor said "She has problems with her hamstring."

Unsworth placed in the 800-meter and the mile run to score 10 of Harvard's 109 points at the Indoor Heps. Since the Crimson defeated Brown by 17 points that meet, the loss of Unsworth will clearly make an Outdoor championship harder to come by.

Junior Dora Gyorffy--the NCAA Indoor champion in the high jump-- should be able to earn a guaranteed 20 points. She has won the high jump and triple jump championship at each of the recent Heptagonal meets, without any competition.

Junior Marna Schutte is the fourth competitor who the Crimson will need to score a significant number of points at this meet. Schutte has won the 400 meter at each of the recent Heptagonal meets. She'll be depended on to place highly in the 200 meter. At Indoor Heps, Taylor was the only runner to beat her.

The Crimson will also need the throwers to put together a performance similar to that of Indoor Heps, in which both freshman Jill Kornetsky and sophomore Natalie Grant placed among the top six. The throwers will look to rebound from a disappointing Yale meet, in which none of them managed a first-place finish.

"Hopefully they'll do well," Taylor said. "We're still waiting for [Grant] to have another great day, and Jill's been absolutely amazing as a freshman."

Taylor expects the top competition at Heps to come from Brown and Yale.

The Bears have two athletes that have been able to run with Taylor and Schutte in the past. Brown juniors Nichole Hill and Lindsay Taylor, Brenda's sister. Hill has managed to beat Taylor and Schutte in the past, but was unable to come up with a victory in the Indoor Heps this year.

Yale's emergence as a contender has been a surprise, considering that the Bulldogs scored half as many points as Harvard at Indoor Heps.

One reason for the Bulldogs improvement is sophomore Sikira Backus, who ran a school-record time in the 200 meter to beat Schutte in April's dual meet.

"Yale's a tougher team outdoors," Taylor said. "They have a girl who wasn't winning much before who's now winning everything. It's amazing how one good person can get you so many points."

While Yale and Brown will be tough, with Taylor, Schutte, and Gyorffy capable of scoring as many as 70 points by themselves, the Crimson has a good chance of winning its first Outdoor Heptagonal Championship since 1990. But the stars will need other teammates to come up big.

"Depth will make your team win," Taylor said.

Harvard Men

While the men likely will not be able to compete for the Heptagonal championship, a number of athletes are capable of winning individual titles.

Captain Darren Dinneen had a breakthrough meet against Yale, winning the 800-meter and 1500-meter events. Dinneen was an NCAA qualifier last season, and he may be as healthy right now as he has been all year.

Junior Arthur Fergusson will be looking for a title in the triple jump, after finishing third in the event at last year's Outdoor Heps and fifth at this year's Indoors.

Junior John Kraay has had a spectacular season this year for the Harvard throwers. Kraay has been winning the shot put all year for Harvard. He should be able to beat or match his third-place finish in the event at Indoor Heps.

Junior Chris Clever will be looking to defend his Heptagonal title in the javelin. He won the event last year with a school record 69.64-meter throw that qualified him for the Olympic trials.

In the sprints and shorter distances, senior Cabral Williams, and sophomores Kobie Fuller, Osahon Omoregie, and Nnamdi Okike are all capable of earning the Crimson some points. Senior David Martin has been the Crimson's top distance runner of late.

With a few solid individual performances, the men's team will be able to prove that March's ninth-place performance at Indoor Heps was merely an aberration.