Rookie Leads Way In Solid Weekend

In the runup to the spring outdoor season, the Harvard track and field team has a lot to look forward to following some surprise performers in the weekend’s ECAC Women’s and IC4A Men’s Indoor Track Championships at the Reggie Lewis Track and BU’s Track and Tennis Center, respectively.

“It’s kind of a weird meet with not the whole team qualifying,” co-captain Molly Boyle said. “But we had a lot of freshmen qualify and do well.”

The Crimson’s championship effort was highlighted by the freshmen, as Dan Chenoweth and Jamie Olson posted impressive times in their events.

In the men’s 3K, Chenoweth averaged a four minute mile, finishing second in the event with a time of 8:04.72.

“Dan ran great, definitely the race of the weekend for us,” co-captain Brian Holmquest said. “He bided his time in the pack, stayed at a consistent pace and with 200 to go he made a move on the turn. But the kid from Stony Brook [sophomore Tim Hodge] nipped him at the line.”

Chenoweth’s finish ranked second among true freshmen in the nation and third among freshman overall and gives him a provisional qualification for NCAAs. His time falls just seven seconds behind Harvard’s school record set by Ian Carswell in his senior campaign in 1997.

Olson left her mark in the women’s 1000-meter run with a qualifying 2:51.99 in the preliminaries, then knocking off two seconds in the finals to finish at a third-best 2:49.65.

“Jamie had a huge [personal record] in the 1000,” Boyle said. “She’s a great addition to the team.”

Rookies Claire Richardson and Meghan Cleary offered back-to-back finishes in the women’s 3K with 20th- and 21st-ranked 10:03.20 and 10:06.29 times, respectively.

Junior Becky Christensen’s 1.79m clearance in the high jump came up just one centimeter short of her personal indoor best, but provisionally qualifies her for the NCAAs.

Co-captain Sally Stanton and senior Clara Blattler cleared 3.55m and 3.85m, respectively, in the pole vault, while senior Danielle Mirabal finished eighth in the 60-meter dash. Senior Brittan Smith led the women in the field events with a second-place leap of 6.00m.

Co-captain Alex Lewis finished sixth in the men’s heptathlon with 5112 points.

All in all, the women supplied 11 ECAC qualifiers and the men added eight IC4A qualifiers, including the 4x800-meter relay, which bodes well for the upcoming outdoor season starting in two weeks.

With just two weeks before the squad kicks off outdoor season with the Texas Southern Relays in Houston, there’s a lot to look forward to.

“It’s good to have our indoor game rolling,” Boyle said. “It’s really good to have people doing well going into the outdoor season.”

—Staff writer Dixon McPhillips can be reached at fmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.