Frosh Shine For Crimson

For the Harvard women’s cross country team, there is only one direction to go this weekend: up.

The Crimson will travel to New York City’s Van Cortlandt Park to compete tomorrow morning in the 31st annual Heptagonal Championship, which serves as the championship race for the Ivy League. Last year, the Harvard women finished a disappointing eighth, nearly 200 points behind champion Princeton.

But a lot has changed for the Crimson in the last year, and most of that is due to coach Jason Saretsky’s first recruiting class.

“They’ve had a tremendous impact in increasing the talent level and depth of our team,” Saretsky said. “They’re passionate about working hard every day.”

Harvard has enjoyed a very successful season thus far, beginning with the Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet in September. The Crimson, led by seniors Lindsey Scherf and captain Sarah Bourne, defeated Yale for the first time in eight years. Most notably, however, freshmen Jamie Olson and Claire Richardson finished second and third for Harvard, setting the tone for the class of 2011.

“H-Y-P, where we beat Yale, helped us gain some confidence at the beginning of the season,” Richardson said.

Since then, the Crimson’s freshmen have been front and center, but not without some help from their older teammates.

“A lot of it is due to leadership from seniors, particularly captain Sarah Bourne,” Saretsky said.

“The freshmen have helped bring [the team] up to a higher level of running,” Bourne said. “They’re a really great group of people.”

This chemistry has played a big role in the team’s success thus far.

“We’re really good about running as a pack,” freshman Renata Cummins said.

Five different freshmen have broken away from the pack to become the top finisher for Harvard this season. At the UAlbany Invitational, the team’s final tune-up before this weekend’s championship meet, the Crimson’s top four finishers were freshmen. Olson led the pack, followed by Richardson, Eliza Ives, and Cummins, showcasing the depth of the class.

“Our top group is now eight to ten runners rather than two to three,” Saretsky said.

The team’s improvement over the course of the season was evident at Albany, where Olson, Richardson and Ives broke the eighteen-minute barrier for the first time in their careers. The rookies led their team to a first-place finish at the meet.

“Training-wise, a lot of us have improved this year,” Olson said.

That improvement will be crucial over the next two races, as Harvard will compete in its most critical meets of the season, Heptagonals tomorrow and NCAA Regionals on Nov. 10.

“No matter what the outcome of the next two races is, this season can be nothing short of successful,” Saretsky said.

But for now, the team remains focused on the race at hand.

“We have been increasing the intensity of our workouts,” Saretsky said. “The athletes look fresh and ready to go.”

“Everyone’s going into it with a positive attitude,” Richardson added.

The team will be without Scherf, who has two top-six Heptagonals finishes under her belt, as she recovers from an injury. But with such an exceptional level of depth, Harvard is still aiming high.

Princeton, ranked fourth in the country, is the heavy favorite for this weekend’s race. The rest of the league, however, is fairly evenly matched, and in the championship meet environment, anything could happen.But Cummins has a concrete goal in mind for her team.

“We’re hoping to come back and beat Yale again this weekend,” she said.

“First and foremost, we want to improve on our recent performances at Heps,” Saretsky added.

With the momentum generated by Harvard’s rookies, that shouldn’t be hard to do.

“We push each other to do well,” Richardson said. “We need to make sure that we’re aggressive and put it all out there.”