McLean-Foreman Garners Second at Heps

For the Harvard men’s and women’s cross country teams, one race does not define a season. Still, finishing poorly at the Heptagonal Championships—where the Crimson races for the Ivy League championship—is not the way Harvard would have liked to finish the season.

“This was our most important race of the season,” junior captain Reed Bienvenu said.

Unfortunately for the Crimson, both of its teams finished toward the back of the pack on Friday, with the women placing seventh and the men finishing just a little better in sixth.

Nonetheless, both teams did have their highlights.

Junior Alasdair McLean-Foreman had one of Harvard’s best performances in years, capturing second with a blazing time of 24:44.5. Averaging 4:58.6 per mile over the eight-kilometer (just under five-mile) course, McLean-Foreman ran the best Heptagonal race of any Harvard runner in 17 years and earned First-Team All-Ivy League honors.

Amazingly, his main focus is not even the cross country season.

“I was very happy with the race myself,” McLean-Foreman wrote in an e-mail. “As I’m a middle distance specialist, used to running 800m, 8000m is always pretty tough (especially at Van Cortlandt [Park, where the race was held]) so I’m pleased with the result.…I’m focusing on the track season and this was a nice surprise.”

Even McLean-Foreman’s accomplishment was a little bittersweet in the context of the team’s sixth-place result.

“Of course we are disappointed,” McLean-Foreman wrote. “Sixth place is definitely not the result we were looking for.”

Yet with seven of the 11 Crimson runners who competed running at Heps for the first time and all 11 returning next year, Harvard is optimistic about its future.

“I’m confident we have the talent to win Heps next year,” McLean-Foreman said. “The important thing for us as a team is to recognize we are a lot better than our performances so far this season. If we can build confidence with quality training we definitely have a very good shot at the title next year.”

Brown took home the championship—its first ever—with 60 points, led by fifth-place finisher Jeff Gaudette (24.51.0).

The only man to beat McLean-Foreman was Columbia’s cross country ace Steve Sundell (24:26.9), who took home 10th place two weeks ago at the NCAA Pre-Nationals meet.

Other top finishers for the Crimson, which finished with 125 points, included sophomore Timothy Galebach (25:24.2, 15th place) and Bienvenu (25.28.8, 17th).

Harvard’s fifth man was quite a pleasant surprise. Freshman Jonathan Paul took a big stride on Friday, finishing in an impressive 27:01.01.

“Paul stepped up and had his best performance of the season to help round off our team score,” Bienvenu said. “[He] is a very talented runner, and it is these kind of breakthrough performances by our freshmen that show how much young talent we have on our team.”

Women

Like the men, the Crimson women were disappointed with their team performance, but could look to a few isolated bright spots.

Harvard finished seventh, placing ahead of Brown.

“The field was tough this year,” sophomore Laura Maludzinski said. “There were a lot of good teams who had improved a ton since last year, but beating Brown was nice because they had beaten us in a race earlier in the season so it showed us that maybe we didn’t do as badly as we thought.”

Ivy League powerhouses Princeton, Dartmouth and Columbia captured 14 of the top 15 individual spots, with the Lions taking home the championship for a second straight year on the back of third-place finisher Caitlin Hickin (17:21.2 over the five-kilometer course).

Maludzinski (18:26.3) and captain Mairead O’Callaghan (18:32.0) led the Crimson to a 180-point day, finishing 26th and 28th, respectively.

Although she led Harvard on Friday, Maludzinski felt the day was not her best. Running in a pack with teammates, though, made the afternoon for her.

“Maybe I could not have finished better on that given day, but there were people who I was right behind last year and they finished in the top 12 this year, and I think that I should be up with them,” Maludzinski said. “However...it was also really great to run in a pack with some girls on my team [O’Callaghan and junior Rosalinda Castaneda], something that doesn’t happen to me too often but I feel really helps when you’re struggling going up some of the tough, long hills.”

For O’Callaghan, the race was especially sweet as she had finally recovered from an illness that had been hampering her performance. O’Callaghan finished a disappointing 117th at the NCAA Pre-Nationals two weeks ago.

“Mairead’s been very dedicated to the team over the years and it’s really great to see that pay off this year,” said senior Beverly Whelan (19:11.9).

By peaking now at the end of the cross country season, O’Callaghan is setting herself up for the indoor track season as well.

“I’m very excited to see her hard work and natural talent shine through in indoor track,” said Whelan, who is one of the captains of the women’s track team.