Crimson Sees Mixed Results at Heptagonals

It was a mixed bag in terms of victories for the men and women’s track team this weekend.

Senior Julia Peterson had never seen her team finish above last in the Heptagonal Championships, but this past Saturday the women’s track and field finished fourth out of the eight teams at the event held in Hanover, New Hampshire.

“It was a huge step forward for the team,” Peterson said. “I was just so proud of my teammates and how we performed.”

For the women, a few strong but unexpected performances propelled them to fourth.

Senior Katherine Nishimura finished tied for second in the pole vault, setting a Crimson record with a 3.70-meter height.

Senior Mary Serdakowski won the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.85 seconds, a big win since the last time she won her event at Heptagonals was freshman year.

Lindsey Scherf posted a first place finish in the 5000-meter run and finished second in the 3000-meters.

But it wasn’t just the veterans who stepped up this weekend.

Freshman Becky Christensen finished second in the high jump, posting a 1.74-meter jump, just two centimeters short of her personal best.

“She’s been performing great this year as a freshman,” Peterson said. “I think staying healthy has been a big factor for us. Our seniors are finally healthy, a lot of sophomores are stepping up to the plate, and a lot of freshmen have been big.”

On the men’s side, Harvard finished seventh of eight, despite impressive performances from the healthy athletes present.

The team competed with only nine men, while other teams showed up with as many as 33.

“We had some guys who weren’t feeling great or were hurt,” junior Sean Barrett said. “We could’ve done better, but we did the best with what we had I suppose.”

Senior Travis Hughes put up a fourth place finish with a long jump of 7.01 meters, while senior captain Samyr Laine finished second in the event with a jump of 7.18 meters.

In addition to the long jump, Laine finished second in the triple jump with a distance of 15.37 meters. He posted the most points for the men’s squad this weekend.

“He scored sixteen points,” Barrett said. “That’s really good. That’s what he does as captain; he scores the points, and we feed off his example.”

And a few competitors rose to meet his level.

Barrett finished third in the 5000-meter run with a time of 14:29.74, while sophomore Alex Obrecht finished seventh in the shot put with a 14.71-meter throw.

The Crimson hope to use this weekend to lead them into next weekend’s ECAC championships.

“We had some guys compete with some good times this weekend, so we’re ready to go again next weekend,” Barrett said. “Hopefully we will gain some momentum and have some good races and good marks.”

—Staff writer Madeline I. Shapiro can be reached at mshapiro@fas.harvard.edu.