Track and Field Competes at Historic Penn Relays

The Harvard track and field team sent a handful of field athletes to the historic Penn Relays over the weekend. With the Outdoor Heptagonal Championships taking place next weekend, the Crimson athletes who were in action turned in some strong performances, including personal-bests.

“Overall, we took a low-key approach to the weekend,” Harvard coach Jason Saretsky said. “This weekend isn’t necessarily the best barometer of where things are at for next weekend, because we had a number of our people not compete to kind of rest up and get ready for [Heps].”

On the men’s side, sophomore Igor Liokumovich threw a lifetime-best mark in the discus to earn fifth place. On the second of his six throws in the event, the sophomore registered a toss of 51.61 meters, his personal best at that point. But on his final throw of the competition, he bettered that effort by over a meter, finishing with a mark of 52.87 meters, the fifth best in school history.

“Igor is a talented athlete, and he’s shown some real flashes of brilliance,” Saretsky said. “It was great to see things really come together for him this weekend.”

Senior Mary Hirst tied her outdoor all-time best mark in the high jump. The veteran cleared the bar at 1.76 meters, which was good for eighth place in the event. Hirst’s outdoor mark stands as the fourth best in school history, just three centimeters below Kart Siilats ’03 for a spot in the top three.

“I was hoping and kind of expecting to get 1.80 again—that’s what I was going for and I was thinking I was going to get it, so I was kind of disappointed that I didn’t get that,” Hirst said. “But I’m happy that I went and was in competition with those girls that I’ll be competing with [at regionals and nationals].”

The meet, which is held at Penn’s Franklin Field, had over 22,000 entries this year, ranging from high school to the professional level. With an attendance of over 100,000 people, including 48,871 on the meet’s final day, it is the best-attended track meet in the United States each year.

“It’s like the kind of crowd you would get for a big football game,” Hirst said. “You get chills watching some of the races because the crowd gets so into it.”

After competing in the largest meet of the year, the Crimson is set to shift its focus to the most important meet on its calendar.

“I was really pleased with the student-athletes that did compete this weekend; they got in some good work,” Saretsky said.

—Staff writer Dominic Martinez can be reached at dmartinez@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @dominicmTHC.