Individual Efforts Bolster Improved Harvard at Heps

Harvard track and field showed marked improvement from last year’s Outdoor Heptagonal Championships, as the men’s side moved up one spot, finishing seventh in the eight-team pool, and the Crimson women improved from last year’s seventh-place finish to notch fourth, just one point behind third place Brown.

“Heptagonal Championships is where a majority of our team can compete and do well,” Harvard coach Jason Saretsky said. “It was a fun weekend and a great step for both the men’s and women’s programs.”

The results from the two-day meet at Yale’s Cuyler Field and Dwyer Track mark the best all-around Crimson performance since 2003, and a solid start to the championship season.

The men’s side combined the tenacity of its rookies and the reliability of its veterans to lock up 34 points. Three Harvard freshman collected points, with Dan Chenoweth and Sean Gil finishing second in the 5000-meter and pole vault competitions, respectively, and Eric Clayman swiping sixth in the hammer throw.

Chenoweth’s second-place finish didn’t come easy, though, as the Illinois native fell after five laps. Picking himself up, Chenoweth crept up the pack—at one point taking the outright lead—to finish second behind Princeton’s All-American senior Dave Nightingale with a time of 14:31.16.

“The composure [Chenoweth] showed to get up in dead last place and make his way to the front of the pack was just awesome,” Saretsky said.

Gil cleared an IC4A-qualifying height of 4.80 meters to secure the second spot and tack more points to the Crimson total and Clayman hurled the hammer 54.40 meters for sixth place and an IC4A qualification.

For the veterans, senior co-captain Alex Lewis improved on his personal best by almost 200 points in the decathlon, logging 6,565 points and collecting a fourth spot. Lewis’s finish puts him just 89 points behind Peter Rittenburg ’82 as the Harvard decathlon record holder.

Sophomore Justin Grinstead’s new personal best of 52.49 in the 400-meter hurdles was good enough for third and also qualified him for NCAA Regionals, while junior Derek Jones’s 47.73 finish in the 400-meter run gave him fourth and a new personal-best time.

On the women’s side, it came down to the final two events—4x800-meter and 4x400-meter relays—to decide whether Harvard or the Bears would go home with third place.

“It was an exciting battle for the two of us,” Saretsky said.

Anchoring the 4x800 squad, freshman Jamie Olson legged out Cornell’s senior Anjelica Gregory in the homestretch to secure the gold medal for the Crimson and putting the women’s squad ahead of Brown.

But without representation in the 4x400, Harvard could only watch as the Bears relay team beat out Yale by four hundredths of a second to take fourth place and move ahead of the Crimson by a point.

Junior Becky Christensen continued her dominance in the high jump, starting at 1.67 meters and clearing it on her first try. The jump was all she would need to secure the victory, as Yale’s Emily Standish only cleared the bar on her third try.

“This definitely was the easiest victory for Becky ever,” co-captain Sally Stanton said.

With her win on Sunday, Christensen notched her third consecutive outdoor Heptagonals high jump victory, and fourth overall—including her indoor Heptagonal victory earlier this year.

Junior Favia Merrit set a new school record in the 100-meter dash and contributed to another new record in the 4x100-meter relay. Her 11.82 finish in the 100-meter trumps 2006 graduate Stevie DeGroff’s 11.88 time and was good enough for third overall at this weekend’s meet.

Merritt anchored the 4x100-meter team, which finished second at 46.59, topping the 2006 relay team’s old record of 46.65.

“Favia’s had an outstanding year,” Saretsky said. “This year she’s really put herself in as one of our top performers.”

Classmate Shannon Flahive tallied a season-best 4,741 points to collect second in the heptathlon, while freshman Jessica Fronk amassed 4,669 points to take fourth in the event.

In addition to being a part of the record-setting 4x100 team, junior Brittan Smith placed fifth in the 100-meter dash with a personal best of 11.97.

Harvard will be sending qualifying members to the ECAC/IC4A Championships next weekend at Princeton.

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