In Two Different States, Track Teams Perform Well

The Harvard track teams may have traveled different paths this weekend, but the results were the same: success.

The bulk of the team spent the weekend battling frigid weather at the UConn Alumni Invitational, while several top distance runners traveled to Princeton for the Sam Howell Invitational.

The team at UConn was led by two winners apiece on the men’s and women’s sides. Sophomore Becky Christensen won the high jump with a leap of 1.73 meters, the second time in three outdoor meets she has won the event.

“One of my goals for this year was to not let the weather affect my performance as much as it did last year,” Christensen, a Texas native, said. “Yesterday, I managed to do really well in dealing with the cold.”

Junior Clara Blattler was the other female winner, taking the pole vault after clearing the bar at 3.65 meters. Junior Sally Stanton was third in the event, and freshman Heidi Hirschl was fifth.

For the men, junior Alex Lewis won the decathlon with 6,366 points, and freshman George Eggers took the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 55.75.

Several other women claimed top finishes. Sophomore Shannon Flahive finished second in the 100-meter hurdles in 14.64 seconds, and classmate Dara Wilson was fifth. Sophomore Kelli Okuji ran a 1:06.36 to finish second in the 400-meter hurdles. Flahive earned her second top-two placement of the day by taking second in the long jump with a 5.52 meter jump, and fellow sophomore Elissa Reidy finished third.

The javelin continued to be one of the best events of the season for the Crimson, as freshman Eda Karesin took third with a 43.02-meter throw and senior Julia Pederson finished fourth after a toss of 41.79. Sophomore Favia Merrit took fourth in both the 100 meters and 200 meters, running a 12.18 in the 100 and a 25.57 in the 200. Junior Lauren Walker finished sixth in the 800 meters in a time of 2:20.9, and junior Veronika Leitold was sixth in the 1500 meters after a 4:54.82 time.

The points were good enough to place the women’s team fourth out of the nine teams present. Ivy League rival Brown finished second, 49 points ahead of Harvard.

The men’s team had several other strong finishers as well. Sophomore Derek Jones took fourth in the 400 meters with a time of 50.63 seconds, and junior Alex Obrecht finished fourth in the shot put with a 15.65-meter heave. Freshman Neville Irani took fifth in the hammer throw after a 48.89-meter throw; senior Matt Niemczak finished fifth in the javelin and seventh in the discus. Niemczak was joined in the points column in discus by freshman Jack Brady, who placed eighth with a 41.04-meter throw.

The men’s results put the Crimson in fifth among nine teams, 51 points behind second-place Brown.

In New Jersey, junior Brian Holmquest ran the third-fastest 10,000-meter time in school history, 29:59.91, to win that event at the Sam Howell Invitational.

“That was one of those things that I was looking at as a goal for the year—trying to break 30, and only two other guys have done it in the long history of Harvard track,” Holmquest said.

“I knew I could do it at some point, but actually doing it is a whole different thing,” he added.

Junior Sarah Bourne won the same event on the women’s side, finishing in 36:44.57, a personal best and ECAC qualifying time. Senior Tim Galebach finished fourth in the 5,000 meters after running a 14:25.37, and senior Sean Barrett was seventh in the same event with a 14:30.33.

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