Rain Shortens Solid Performances in Texas

In track and field, winning the top three spots in an event is hard to do. Grabbing spots one through five in an event is even harder. Claiming the top five in one event and then the top four in another is even more impressive.

For the Harvard men’s and women’s track and field teams, last Friday was a day to impress. The Crimson squads came ready to race at the Texas Southern Relays this past weekend in Houston, grabbing medals in nine different events before rain caused the meet to finish a day early.

“I thought we had a great spring break,” Harvard coach Jason Saretsky said. “We got in some really good training, working hard and getting a lot of good things accomplished, and then we had a good Friday at the TSU relays.”

After spending a week training at Rice University, the women’s distance squad was more than ready on Friday. In one of the first races of the day—the women’s 3000-meter event—a pack of Harvard runners took the lead from the start, refusing to relinquish its position. Junior Claire Richardson crossed the line first with a time of 9:59.33, followed four seconds later by Crimson sophomore Nicole Cochran. Sophomore Jeanne Mack and juniors Hilary May and Jamie Olson grabbed the third through fifth positions. Fifteen more seconds lapsed before a runner from a different team reached the finish.

The men’s side had similar success in the 3000-meter race, claiming the top four spots. Freshman Jeremy Gilmour grabbed first place with a time of 8:35.39, two tenths of a second ahead of classmate Phil Galebach. Sophomores Dan Stiles and Michael Hoffman were right behind, placing third and fourth.

“To see [the distance runners] go out and dominate the field like that, I was very pleased,” Saretsky said.

In addition to the distance wins, the women’s 4x800 relay team saw success as the sophomore quartet of Magda Robak, Shannon Conway, Lauren Leon and Alison Lee took second place with a time of 9:20.59 behind Alabama State.

“The 4x400 team ran the 4x800 race and they were right in it the entire time,” Olson said. “It was pretty impressive since they normally run 400s. They did really well. In the last two laps it was just them and Alabama [State].”

Members of both sides also took victories despite competing outdoors for the first time this year. Sophomore Robbie Paris won the 400-meter hurdles in the third of five sections with a time of 56.85, while his classmate and counterpart on the women’s side, Kim O’Donnell, placed second by two tenths of a second in her section.

As Harvard’s track team handled the competition, the field squad was equally successful. On the men’s side, senior Jack Brady won the hammer throw with a mark of 56.35 meters, followed by junior Eric Clayman, who grabbed third place. The Crimson also took first and third place in the javelin throw. The women’s field events featured Harvard taking three second-place finishes. Junior Dina Emde jumped 1.65 meters in the high jump for the silver, while freshman Sydnie Leroy placed second in the pole vault. Senior Jessica Fronk rounded out the trio, finishing second in the javelin throw.

With all of the triumphs, the only damper of the week came when race officials decided to cancel Saturday’s races due to strong rain.

“The [athletes] were definitely disappointed,” Saretsky said. “They were looking forward to competing, but it’s one of the things we talk about—focusing on what you can control as an athlete, and you can’t control the weather.”

Saretsky added that despite the bad weather, Friday’s victories proved that the team will have more success to come, including next weekend’s events at the Stanford Invitational and the Central Florida Invitational.

“Fortunately we have a number of weekends coming up for other opportunities to turn in some good performances,” Saretsky said. “It should be a fun season.”

—Staff writer Alex Sopko can be reached at sopko@fas.harvard.edu.