Women's Track Takes Second, Men Third at HYP

The Crimson indoor track teams rolled down Interstate 95 for the annual Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet Saturday, and they had all it could handle in the Bulldogs and Tigers.

The Harvard women finished second, scoring 53 points to Princeton’s 66.5 while besting Yale’s 39.5.

The men did not fare as well, scoring just 15 points while finishing third in a meet that was dominated by Princeton with 119 points. Yale finished second on the men’s side with 26.

“We expected that we would be really evenly matched,” sophomore Becky Christensen said, adding that the team expected each of the competitors to be within roughly five points.

“For the girls’ team, it was anyone’s meet. Princeton ended up taking a lot of points that we expected Yale would get,” she added.

Sophomore Shannon Flahive had the strongest day on either side for the Crimson, winning the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.09 seconds and taking the long jump with a 5.64 meter leap. She also placed second in the 200 meters, while sophomore Elissa Reidy was second to Flahive in the long jump.

Harvard women dominated the throwing events, with junior Molly Boyle winning the weight throw and freshman Eda Karesin taking the shot put. Crimson pole vaulters finished strong as well, with juniors Sally Stanton and Jitka Tomas finishing tied for second while junior Clara Blatter earned a point in fourth place.

Tomas also won the triple jump, while Christensen took first in the high jump.

For Tomas, it was the first time she had ever competed in the event.

“We had a lot of people who really stepped up in some events that they don’t have a lot of experience competing in before,” Christensen explained.

On the men’s side, freshman Alex Tremblay scored three points by placing third in the long jump and fourth in the triple jump, the only multiple-placer for the Crimson.

“I feel like I made a step in the right direction,” Tremblay said. “We went into the meet knowing that we were outmatched to a degree, largely in numbers. The fact is that our team is a lot smaller than a lot of other competitors. Just the numbers alone make it difficult to compete sometimes.”

Crimson athletes competed in 13 of the 16 scored events, but just five of those events had multiple entrants from Harvard. Yale and Princeton, by contrast, had multiple competitors in almost every event.

Other strong finishers for the Crimson included junior Christopher Green, who was second in the 1000 meters, and senior Christian Ayers, who was second in the weight throw.

Sophomore Neville Irani was fourth in the weight throw, and freshman Justin Grinstead placed third in the 400 meters, just ahead of fellow freshman George Kulakowski, who placed fourth.

Senior Tim Galebach rounded out the scoring by placing third in the mile behind a pair of Princeton runners who have already provisionally qualified for the NCAA tournament.

But while the results weren’t necessarily there for the men, there was progress for the outmanned squad.

“We try not to gauge our success on what the scoreboard says at the end of the meet,” Tremblay said. “For us, it’s just another link in the chain, another step on the way to a great season.”

—Staff writer Brad Hinshelwood can be reached at bhinshel@fas.harvard.edu.