After Break, Crimson Edged by Huskies

The lame duck period for Harvard track and field coach Frank Haggerty officially got underway Saturday afternoon as the Crimson men and women fell to Northeastern in a dual meet at Gordon Track by scores of 74-71 and 68-59, respectively.

The event marked the first competition for the team since the public announcement of the 31-year coach’s retirement effective in June, as well as the first action since Harvard Invitational nearly a month ago. It was only the second scored competition of the season, and women stand at 1-1 in dual meets this year while the men fell to 0-2.

“We were the underdogs in both the meets,” Haggerty said. “I think we competed very well, particularly given that we haven’t had a meet since December 10. People don’t have the best of training facilities [over the break], so considering that, I think we were very competitive.”

Standouts for the women included freshman Becky Christensen, who set a personal best in the high jump, winning the event at a height of 1.76 meters.

“I improved over my best by about a quarter of an inch, which is good,” Christensen said. “I haven’t jumped any higher than that, ever.”

Christensen’s height, in fact, exceeds that of the winning long jump at last year’s Heptagonal Championships, the February precursor to the ECAC and NCAA Championships in March.

“She’s only a freshman, so that’s very impressive,” Haggerty said.

The women also got another strong freshman performance, this one from freshman Shannon Flahive, whose 5.55 meter long jump notched first place in the event. However, a fourth place finish in the 60 meter hurdles was followed by a pulled hamstring in the 60 meter dash.

“The preliminary report is that it’s a mild pull,” Haggerty said. “Hopefully she’ll be back by the end of the month.”

Harvard had just one double-winner during the afternoon, as captain Laura Maludzinski finished first in both the 800 meters and the mile with times of 2:18.54 and 5:16.89, respectively. She also anchored the 4x800 meter relay team to a 9:31.70 win of the event, when she turned a large deficit at the start of the last leg into a three-second victory.

The men came just short of their first victory of the year, winning eight of the 17 events on Saturday. Jumping success continued with long jumper and senior Travis Hughes, who took his event at a length of 6.92 meters, as well as senior Samyr Laine, whose 15.54 meter length was good enough to win the triple jump.

That success in those events is no surprise for a team that heavily recruited in those areas.

“We’ve got some of the best jumpers in the country, actually,” Haggerty said. “But we have some holes in the sprints and hurdles, and some of the jumpers are guys who are also doing other events.”

Also strong was distance runner junior Sean Barrett, who, although he failed to win an event, competed in four—two of which came back-to-back.

“I was particularly impressed with him,” Haggerty said. “He ran the mile, he ran the 800, and he came back and tried the 1000, which was the event right after the 800, and then he ran a mile relay.”

Saturday’s loss for the men was closer than the 80-63 defeat at Boston College over a month ago, but the team hoped to enter its next meet, a January 28 dual-meet against Cornell and Brown, with a bit of momentum.

“It would have been really nice to win that baby, real good for the guys,” Haggerty said. “They know we have an uphill battle this year.”

—Staff writer Malcom A. Glenn can be reached at mglenn@fas.harvard.edu.