Men’s Track Third, Women Fourth at Brown Invitational

The Harvard men’s and women’s track and field teams finished third and fourth, respectively, at the Brown Invitational on Saturday.

The Invitational was not originally on the Crimson’s schedule, but was added after the Dartmouth meet on April 5 was cancelled due to snow. The Brown Invitational marked Harvard’s first outdoor meet this season. Due to rainy morning weather, all jumps were held indoors a half-mile away from the other events.

Training during the week leading up to the event proved difficult due to the poor weather.

“Practicing outdoors in the snow and rain is good for conditioning, but training in better weather would allow us to become more fluid rather than conditioned,” co-captain Ashley Furst said.

Despite the tough conditions imposed by the weather, the meet could not be overlooked, even though the team was not rested.

“Our season is very short,” senior Alayna Miller said. “Every meet is important.”

The women’s 89 points and fourth-place showing were marked by several highlights. Junior Johanna Doyle won the hammer throw en route to breaking the Brown Stadium record. On the track, freshman Adanna Scott placed second in the 400-meter hurdles. Freshman Jennifer Perry placed second in the 800 meters, while her classmate Laura Maludzinski had a New England qualifying time in the 1500 meters. Furst was third in the 400 meters and the 400-meter relay team also had a third-place finish.

Miller placed fourth in the 110-meter hurdles, after having to choose between competing in the jumping events and the hurdles, as the contests were held in two different venues. She went with the hurdles, a decision made in preparation for Saturday’s meet at Yale.

The men’s team earned a strong third place with several key performances and 75 total points. Freshman Samyr Laine placed second in the triple jump, defeating the defending Ivy League indoor champion, Brown’s Sean Thomas. Freshman Kevin Duffy won the javelin.

On the track, senior Chris Lambert won the 100-meter dash in 10.82 seconds. Senior Niall Murphy placed fourth in the 110-meter hurdles in 15.3 seconds. Co-captain John Traugott placed third in the 1500 meters with a time of 3:50.9, placing him at the top of the Ivy League.

The Bears were victorious in both the men’s and women’s competitions. Nine teams participated in the Invitational. However, the meet was only a warm-up for the Crimson, as its sights are set on the Yale dual meet.

“Our performances were not indicative of what we are capable of,” Traugott said. “We’re just tuning up for Yale.”

Harvard hopes to avenge its defeat at the indoor championships, where Yale emerged with a narrow victory over the Crimson.

“If we play our parts right, we’ll beat them,” Traugott said. “We’re all fired up.”

Individually, teammates have an extra incentive to perform well, as the lineup for the annual Oxford-Cambridge meet in June will be decided by individual performances this weekend.