Female Rookie of the Year: Martina Salander, Women's Track and Field

Like most Harvard freshmen, Martina Salander arrived on campus in the fall boasting a diverse array of talents. But before springtime arrived in Cambridge, Salander demonstrated that her talents were both unlike those of any other freshman, and also unlike those of any other athlete in Ancient Eight history.

In her rookie season with the Harvard track and field team, she established herself as not only the best multi-event athlete in Crimson history, but also in the history of the Ivy League.

The first-year was one of three members of the Ivy-champion Harvard women’s squad to qualify for the Indoor NCAA Championships this season. As the only freshman in the 16-competitor pentathlon field, Salander proved that her relative lack of experience was a non-factor, as she scored 4,209 points to earn fifth place.

“It was just a solid day,” the freshman said of her performance. “I was really pleased with all of the events, especially the shot put and the long jump.”

Salander’s performance at nationals improved upon the previous Ancient Eight record, a 4,053-point outing that was set in 2001. Also, her fifth-place finish earned her the first All-American honors in school history for a Crimson multi-event athlete.

“At nationals, you know that the girl next to you is going to throw farther than she did throughout the season, and [she will] run faster, and jump farther, so it pushes you to compete stronger,” Salander said.

The rookie’s strongest component of the pentathlon at nationals was the shot put, which Salander used to propel herself up the standings. Before the shot put, which is the third of five events that comprise the pentathlon, Salander stood in 12th place. With her impressive 14.23-meter heave, she rose all the way to third place in the competition.

“She’s very, very powerful, one of the most powerful kids I’ve had the opportunity to work with,” said Crimson assistant coach Kebba Tolbert, who trains the team’s multi-event athletes. “She has a tremendous capacity for work, so some of the things that we did in training really showed up.”

Salander’s power was on display at events before the indoor national championship, as well. Rather than competing in the pentathlon at the Indoor Heptagonal Championships, to protect herself from injury, Salander instead elected to represent Harvard in three events: the individual 60-meter dash, the 60-meter hurdles, and the shot put.

“You can only do two, maybe three pentathlons during a season because it takes a lot of energy,” Salander said. “But also because I was kind of injured at that point, we didn’t want to risk anything for nationals.”

Though she failed to place in the 60-meter dash, she was able to collect nine points for the Crimson by finishing in second and sixth in the hurdles and shot put, respectively. Her time in the 60-meter hurdles ranks third in school history, and her mark in the shot put is sixth all-time.

“I was happy that I was able to help out the team a little bit,” Salander said. “[Winning Heps] was definitely one of the biggest moments in my track career so far, especially being able to do that at our home stadium…. We showed the other Ivies what we’ve got, it was great.”

Though her improvement as the season progressed led to the freshman’s All-American distinction, Salander came out of the gates firing on all cylinders for Harvard. In the team’s third week of competition in January, the Stocklhom, Sweden, native was part of a Crimson contingent that traveled to College Station, Texas, to compete in the Texas A&M Mondo Challenge, while the rest of the team stayed behind in Boston to compete in the Terrier Invitational at Boston University.

At the meet, Salander set the Ivy League record in the pentathlon for the first time, recording 4,094 points for a second-place finish. She finished runner-up to Arizona State’s Keia Pinnick, who went on to be the runner-up at indoor nationals in the event. Salander’s mark was the first time a Harvard athlete had ever broken the 4000-point barrier.

“That was the meet where I qualified for nationals, so it was definitely important,” Salander said. “After that, we could go back [to practice] and be more focused with the training.”

Following her stellar indoor debut, Salander hit a speed bump when competition moved outdoors later in the spring. Nagging injuries that had been bothering Salander since the indoor season prevented her from competing. According to the rookie, the best way to build off a season where she set both school and Ancient Eight records is simple: stay healthy.

“Competition-wise, I was really happy [with the 2013 season], but training-wise I was not happy because I’ve been dealing with injuries,” Salander said. “I was surprised that I performed that well at nationals, but I still think that I can do better in the upcoming seasons if I can stay healthy.”

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