Harvard Sports Teams Postpone Competitions Following Lockdown

Friday’s city-wide lockdown prompted seven Harvard varsity teams to postpone or withdraw from competition.

Athletic department communications director Timothy J. Williamson said that the athletic department acted with the safety of its student-athletes in mind as it followed the University’s decision to suspend activities.

“Obviously the situation was extraordinary in terms of the safety of our student athletes. It’s a lot different from other situations we’ve been in,” Williamson said. “As soon as the school was closed, the athletic department also followed similar protocol.”

On Friday afternoon, the Harvard and Columbia women’s lacrosse teams decided to postpone a scheduled Saturday game to April 28. The game will serve as the Crimson’s season finale and Senior Day.

For the coaches, the decision hinged on Columbia’s ability to practice before the game. The final decision was not made until 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon, according to Harvard coach Lisa M. Miller.

The men’s and women’s tennis teams pushed back their matches with Brown from Friday to Sunday and men’s heavyweight crew and women’s lightweight crew teams moved their Saturday races at Princeton to Sunday.

Coed sailing withdrew from its weekend regattas, which included the MIT Tech Invitational, which was canceled, and the Thompson Trophy at Connecticut College. As the commissioner of the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association, sailing coach Michael O’Connor made the decision to postpone the women-only New England Championships at Tufts. O’Connor waited until hearing about other regattas to make his decision.

“Once I knew that the girls weren’t going to be allowed to compete that weekend, that made it simple,” O’Connor said.

The regatta will determine which teams from the conference advance to the national competition.

Miller commended her athletes for staying focused despite the week’s series of distractions.

“It’s [been] a very difficult week,” Miller said. “It was nice to see all of my players on Saturday morning.”

—Staff writer David Freed can be reached at davidfreed@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @CrimsonDPFreed.

—Staff writer Michael D. Ledecky can be reached at mledecky@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @mdledecky.