Athlete of the Week: Hansen Sets Heptathlon Mark

100-meter hurdles. High jump. Shot put. 200-meter dash. Long jump. Javelin. 800-meter run.

When one competes in track and field, she usually competes in one of these events. She trains day in and day out for that single event, mastering her technique.

But sophomore Madison Hansen must train in all of these events in order to succeed in the heptathlon, which is a multi-day event encompassing all seven of these events.

“It’s pretty strenuous. It can be pretty taxing, because obviously you have to prepare for seven events,” said Harvard associate head coach and heptathlon coach Kebba Tolbert. “It’s more challenging because you’ve got to switch gears more than other athletes that might not have to do that.”

This past weekend, Hansen competed at the LSU Alumni Gold meet in the heptathlon. After two days of competition, the Plano, Texas native topped the podium and represented one of several record-breaking performances for Crimson runners in the national meet.

With a final score of 5152 points, Hansen beat out unattached competitor Amber Metoyer, who had 5060 points, in order to claim the title as the top heptathlete in the meet. This was a personal best for Hansen and was good enough for the number two spot in the Harvard record books.

Prior to this weekend, Hansen held the second-best performance by a Crimson heptathlete, but improved her mark at LSU.

Last season at the Heptagonal meet on May 4th, 2013, she scored 5011 points. Mary Hirst ’13 currently holds the number one spot with 5359 points at the same Heptagonal meet last year.

Hansen was coming off of a fourth-place performance in the 100m hurdles against Yale last weekend. In that meet, she finished in 14.45 seconds.

Despite not competing in the heptathlon last weekend, the meet was still beneficial in creating momentum for this weekend’s competition, according to her.

“Competing alongside all of our teammates was really encouraging and inspiring,” Hansen said. “I think we took that inspiration into our meet this weekend at LSU.”

The first event of the heptathlon was the 100-meter hurdles, something Hansen typically considers a strong suit in her repertoire of events. But she struggled a bit starting off, and had to come back in the later events.

Hansen’s time of 14.86 seconds left her in sixth place following the first event, giving her 860 points and putting her 173 points behind the leader right off the bat. Her mark was also four-tenths of a second slower than at the meet against the Bulldogs.

“Hurdles are the first event and usually one of my stronger events. However, I didn’t run the time I wanted to,” Hansen said. “It was really hard to start out on such a low note, but I just refocused and tried to keep my spirits up knowing I had six other events to accomplish.”

And things certainly took a turn for the better for Hansen, as she tied for the top spot in the second event of the heptathlon, leaping 1.62 meters in the high jump.

“Obviously it’s disappointing to not have a great first event, but the key is to look at the whole thing as one event and not get too up or too down,” Tolbert said. “If you get too up after one [event] you can’t focus on the next one, and if you get too down you can’t focus, so the key is to maintain kind of a neutral focus."

Hansen also had a strong performance in the 800-meter run, which she completed in 2 minutes, 17 seconds. Her mark was good enough for second place, just behind Therese Jernbeck of LSU.

Since it was the last event and Metoyer, Hansen’s closest competitor, crossed the line sixth, Hansen was able to capture the overall title with her second-place finish in the 800.

“The 800 was something we’ve been talking about for a while—about having the potential there to do very well,” Tolbert said. “It finally came together.”

Hansen also took third in the shot put with a throw of 11.43 meters. She placed fourth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 26.04 seconds, and took third position in the javelin with a throw of 32.20 meters. She also had a collegiate personal best that earned her third in the long jump with a distance of 5.62 meters.

When she’s not competing in the heptathlon, Hansen competes in individual events such as the 100-meter hurdles and the sprint medley relay. Along with teammates Christi Scott, Gabrielle Scott, and Molly Renfer, she was a member of the record-setting medley relay team that finished in a time of 3:41.85 at the Florida Relays on Apr. 5th.

She will compete in the heptathlon next at the Ivy League Championships on May 10th and 11th.

—Staff writer Theresa C. Hebert can be reached at thebert@college.harvard.edu.