Track Splits Up, Finds Individual Success

With mantras like, “There is no ‘I’ in team,” coaches customarily encourage their squads to become unified as a group. But this weekend, the Harvard track and field team followed a different mindset: “Divide and conquer.”

With both the UCF Invitational and the Stanford Invitational taking place this past Saturday, Crimson coach Jason Saretsky split his team between the sunny climates, with sprinters, jumpers, and throwers traveling to Orlando, Fla., and middle-distance and distance runners going to Palo Alto, Calif., to compete in more individually-focused meets.

“The Stanford meet and the Central Florida meet are less about team competition and more about individual effort,” Saretsky said. “That’s why I was so pleased with how well the weekend went. I thought we got a lot of good things done in both places.”

Despite the squad’s separation, Harvard was represented well from coast to coast. Between UCF and Stanford, the Crimson team members earned multiple victories, strong finishes, and personal bests.

“Overall it was an awesome weekend for Harvard track,” Saretsky said. “I thought we were getting some great work and some really strong performances, and I am really pleased with how things went.”

UCF INVITATIONAL

The meet started strong for the Crimson women when freshman Sydnie Leroy captured a second-place finish in the pole vault with a height of 3.50 meters in one of the first events of the day. She was shortly followed by freshman Olivia Weeks, who claimed Harvard’s first win of the competition with a victory in the triple jump, posting a mark of 12.24 meters.

Junior Jessica Fronk then earned another title for the Crimson in the javelin event with a throw of 45.79 meters—a mark that cleared her closest competitor’s effort by 7.5 meters.

The men’s side had its own share of success led by co-captain Jack Brady, who captured three top-three finishes. Brady started off with a decisive victory for Harvard in the discus throw, posting a mark of 49.01 meters that surpassed the second-place finisher’s score by almost 11 meters. He then led the Crimson in the hammer throw by earning the runner-up title with a score of 56.74 meters. Juniors Eric Clayman and Ablorde Ashigbi closely followed him to help Harvard claim a two-four-five finish in the event. In the shot put, freshman Edwin Brucker and Brady recorded the top-two collegiate marks of 16.40 and 15.78 meters, respectively, and co-captain Justin Grinstead earned a second-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 54.15 seconds.

“It was a small meet to work on [improving] our team with some good performances and some PB’s,” Grinstead said. “I think it is pretty promising because people were able to do some good times, but it still shows areas where we need improvement, so it is helpful.”

STANFORD INVITATIONAL

The Stanford meet is “known for fast times and really good races,” according to Saretsky, and the Crimson measured up well to the competition.

“We had twelve athletes out here, and six of them ran their lifetime best, so there were a number of standout performances,” Saretsky continued.

The top finisher of the meet from Harvard was junior Claire Richardson, who placed second in the 5,000-meter race with a time of 16:20.98.

On the men’s side, junior Dan Chenoweth earned a third-place finish in the same event, crossing the line in 13:59.43, and was closely followed by senior Chas Gillespie, who posted a time of 14:02.19.

Sophomore Darcy Wilson took fourth in the 1,500 meters at 3:53.82, and sophomore Brian Paison and freshman Jeff Homer posted strong times for the Crimson in the 800-meter competition.

“I think this weekend sets us up well for the outdoor season, and we were able to take advantage of some really good weather,” Saretsky said. “We’ve got some more work to be done in order to get where we want to go, but this is shaping up to be a strong season, and the program will continue on its path to getting better.”