Cross-Country Rookies Shine in Iona Meet

Both the Harvard men’s and women’s cross country teams surprised the field at the Iona Meet of Champions this weekend with strong performances from a bumper crop of impressive rookies.

Freshmen Ryan Hafer (26:17.6) and Christopher Green (26:31.4) picked up the slack for three missing men’s starters—Alasdair McLean-Foreman, Sean Barrett and Peter Mullen—turning in the second- and third-best performances on the team. Hafer finished 41st and Green 49th overall.

The Harvard men finished sixth of nineteen teams.

Reed Bienvenu, a senior, led the Crimson with a 12th-place time of 25:28.

“It was the first time the freshmen ran with us,” Bienvenu said. “Even without the other guys, it was a good opportunity for the rest of the team to step up.

“It was a great way for them to start out the season,” he added.

Faced with a relatively large field of competitors and hilly terrain—not to mention distances longer than the standard high school 5K—Hafer and Green helped themselves with good course sense and improved physique.

“They’re in great shape,” Bienvenu said of the freshmen. “They’ve been training a lot. I think everyone was surprised with how well they did.”

McLean-Foreman, Barrett and Mullen could not attend the tournament because of various maladies and conflicts.

The whole team is expected to compete against Yale next week at Franklin Park.

WOMEN

In keeping with the weekend theme, freshman Lindsey Scherf powered the Harvard women’s cross country team to an impressive fifth-place finish at Iona.

With a time of 21:34.3, Scherf posted the tournament’s best score for a freshman, and finished fourth overall individually.

Rounding out the team score were junior Laura Maludzinski (21st, 22:23.0), senior Lindsay Yourman (26th, 22:35.2), senior Rosalinda Castaneda (34th, 22:50.9) and freshman Lauren Walker (41st, 23:03.4).

Stiff Ivy League competition returns this season in Princeton, where the Harvard women will take on the host Tigers and Yale.

—Staff writer Alex McPhillips can be reached at rmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.