Harvard Track Faces Top Competition in New York, New Balance

When sophomore high jumper Kart Siilats committed to transfer to Harvard this past year and senior NCAA champion Dora Gyorffy announced she would return to compete during the Crimson's spring semester following her Olympic break, it was inevitable that Harvard would one day have two of the best high jumpers in the world competing side-by-side.

Friday night in the New York City, Gyorffy and Siilats both competed at the Millrose Games, the self-proclaimed greatest indoor track and field event in the world, which this year was highlighted by Stacey Dragila crushing her own indoor pole vault world record.

Although the individual results of the meet were not what either athlete had hoped for, it was the beginning of a new era of Harvard high-jump dominance that should continue throughout this season.

"It was pretty bad," Gyorffy said of her 1.82-meter finish, which placed her fifth in the competition, down a bit from her second-place finish last year. "I had a minor sprain in my ankle which had to be taped up. Basically I shouldn't have competed this week. But it was a fun meet."

Siilats topped out at the 1.78-meter bar, which placed her last out of the seven competitors in the highly selective field. The event was won at 1.96 meters by Amy Acuff, the U.S. National Team member and high-jump celebrity who has appeared in Rolling Stone and the Tonight Show.

Siilats, the Estonian national record holder, and Gyorffy, the Hungarian national champion, constitute the beginning of what could become a Crimson Eastern Europe high-jump dynasty. Gyorffy's success was likely an attraction in Siilats' decision to come.

"I was hosting [Siilats] when she visited," Gyorffy said. "She liked Harvard, and my example showed her that she could do well in track, and [getting] a good degree [was] very important to her."

There are better performances than this past weekend's yet to come from both Siilats and Gyorffy. Siilats, with her 1.84-meter jump in her opening meet against Boston College, has the highest collegiate jump in the country at this point of the season. Her personal best is 1.89 meters at the 1999 World Championships. Gyorffy jumped 1.90 meters at a competition in Hungary a week before returning to Harvard, and has jumped as high as 1.97 meters at the Indoor Heptagonals last year.

Only Erin Aldrich of Texas, who beat out Gyorffy at NCAA Outdoors last year, is competitive with Siilats and Gyorffy on the national performance lists. A one-two Harvard finish at the upcoming NCAAs can only be stopped by Aldrich, and by Gyorffy's decision not to compete in the meet.

"I think the [one-two] finish is possible," Gyorffy said. "But there's still a long way to go. I might go to the World Championships in Lisbon instead of NCAAs, but I need to jump higher than I am right now."

Siilats had not yet returned from the Millrose Games at press time and could not be reached for comment.

New Balance Invitational

On Sunday at the Reggie Lewis Track and Tennis, co-captain Brenda Taylor and Harvard senior Ed Baker and a Crimson men's distance medley confronted the toughest competition they would face all season. None of the competitors beat anyone in their respective events, but still came up with top performances by Ivy standards.

Taylor finished the 400-meter run in 54.80 seconds. While her time was well short of the 52.18 finish of Jearl Miles-Clark--an Olympic Gold medallist in the 4x400 relay along with Marion Jones--Taylor's time was still by far the fastest Ivy time this season in the 400. Baker finished the 3000 in 8:18.19. Only Rob Doyle of Yale, at 8:13.56, has run faster in the league this year.

The Harvard distance medley team finished with 9:55.64--a new season-best in the league, just ahead of Princeton's performance of 9:56.63. Which team is truly better will be decided at the H-Y-P meet at Princeton this upcoming weekend.

Harvard Select Meet

Just how good is the Harvard women's track team? Good enough to be ranked eighth in the nation by the U.S. Track Coaches Associations Power Rankings. The men's team is ranked 27th out of the participating schools.

The rankings predict potential dual meet finishes based on the top performances on each team, and rank accordingly. Unlike the NCAA meet, which awards points solely to absolute highest competitors--like Gyorffy and Siilats--these rankings, like the Heptagonal Championships, make some depth requisite to be at the top. Rankings which predict the NCAA score place Harvard at about 15th in the country, based on the assumption that Gyorffy will compete.

On Saturday afternoon, the Harvard track teams hosted a low-key invitational meet against teams from Bentley, Boston University and Northeastern in which no team scores were kept. Many Crimson competitors ran outside of their usual events, and few benchmark performances were recorded.

On the women's side, co-captain Marna Schutte--Harvard's best in the 400-meter run--won the 60-meter dash and the 200 comfortably. Sophomore Alayna Miller was also a double winner, taking the long jump and the 60-meter high hurdles.

Senior Senta Burton won the 5000, and the Crimson distance relay team was also victorious.

In the throws, freshman Breeanna Gibson matched her personal best with a 12.47-meter throw in the shot put. Junior Nicky Grant won the weight throw with a 16.81-meter toss. Grant has already set a NCAA provisional qualifying mark and is presently 22nd on the NCAA performances lists.

On the men's side, sophomore Niall Murphy won the 60-meter high hurdles in 8.37 seconds, and senior Arthur Fergusson won the triple jump with a 14.92 meter leap--both season-bests. Co-captain John Kraay was Harvard's remaining event winner, cracking 53 feet (16.17 meters) for the second straight week in the shot put.