Lack of Depth Cripples M., W. Track

The Harvard Track and Field team—back in action last Saturday after a two-week-long break for exams—was overmatched on its home track by Ivy rivals Brown and Cornell. The Big Red, which has had a consistently strong team over the last few years, is one of the Crimson’s biggest rivals when the Heptagonal championships roll around, according to co-captain Adam Gelardi.

This weekend, though, Harvard fell short, with similarly lopsided final scores for the men and women’s teams, both squads losing to Cornell—the meet’s champions—by about 70 points. The men mustered 23 points to the Bears’ 53.5 and the Big Red’s 90.5, while the women managed a few more, earn 24.5 points against 38.5 and 96 by the two visiting teams.

“I think we can attribute the fewer points in the running events to the strength of the Cornell and Brown teams,” senior Andrea Li said. “These two teams have consistently dominated the league in the past few years. I hope and expect that we’ll be more competitive in the Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet in two weeks.”

The Crimson’s field team provided some of the weekend’s best performances, accounting for all of Harvard’s four individual wins on the day.

Men

While the Harvard men’s team knows it has a dearth of sprinters that affect its chance at success, the rest of the team began to understand where it stood in comparison to the league after Saturday’s meet against Brown and Cornell.

While the mid-distance runners were unable to break through with a victory in any event, freshman Jonathan Paul grabbed second in the 1000m run with a time of 2:29.89.

And without a strong sprinting unit or victories from its mid- and long-distance runners, the Crimson walked away Saturday with a tough loss, but not a completely surprising one.

Harvard faces its largest problems in sheer numbers. Cornell—which consistently had four or five runners in each race—simply overwhelmed the Crimson with its deep roster.

“[Overall depth] is one of the true weaknesses of our team,” Gelardi said. “We have great talents just not enough of them.”

This weekend, the field events—which both captains, Gelardi and senior Onyechi Ezekwueche, are a part of—were the only ones in which the Crimson held the edge, proving that they are some of the best jumpers and throwers in the league.

A large percentage of Harvard’s points came from these athletes, who took home third in the high jump (sophomore Clifford Emmanuel), second in the triple jump (sophomore Samry Laine) and the top two spots in the shot put (sophomore Christopher Ware and junior Kristofer Hinson, respectively).

According to Gelardi, Laine even had a chance to grab the victory in the triple-jump, but was not credited for one attempt in which miscommunication led to the official missing the jump.

Women

Although the strength for the Harvard women will be its middle- and long-distance running—proven by the eight freshmen and sophomores who competed in the 800m race—the field team continues to score valuable points.

Against Cornell and Brown, the Crimson earned its only three victories from freshman Sandra Stankovic in the long jump, Li in the pole vault and junior Sandra Venghaus in the shot put.

The field team achieved this success despite the fact that two top competitors, seniors Johanna Doyle and BreeAnna Gibson, did not compete. According to other members of the team, these two will definitely provide another boost in team scoring when they return within the next few weeks.

For Li—who won with a jump of 3.35 meters, or about 11 feet, on Saturday—this year will be the last year to finally reach her college goal of 12 feet.

“In the past, I’ve had tons of injuries, so I haven’t had the time to improve my technique,” Li said. “I’m feeling pretty strong this season, so I think that 12 feet is within reach.”

Li went on to say that she believes by setting this personal record, she will be put herself in position to finish in the top four in pole vaulting at Heptagonals, competing against a number of athletes she faced in high school running for Chelmsford (Mass.) High School.

In the running events, the veteran distance runners continued their solid season by grabbing a number of top-five finishes.

Senior Mairead O’Callaghan, who had a strong cross country season, grabbed fourth in the 300m run with a personal record of 10:10.21. But the best running result of the day came from senior Beverly Whelan, who placed third in the mile with a time of 5:02.69.

—Staff writer Gabriel M. Velez can be reached at gmvelez@fas.harvard.edu.