Track and Field To Host Ivy League Indoor Heps Championship

A season filled with long trips, various records, and hours of hard work comes to fruition this weekend as the Harvard men’s and women’s track and field teams host the Ivy League Indoor Heptagonal Championships.

The women look to claim a three-peat while the men hope to take home the title after finishing third last year.

Doing so will involve having to compete against perennial Ancient Eight powerhouses such as Dartmouth, Cornell and Princeton. The Crimson believes it has what it takes to come out triumphant.

“Both teams are fired up for the competition,” Harvard coach Jason Saretsky said. “It’s great to be on our home track and everyone is looking forward to the competition.”

The Crimson women head into the meet as defending champs and look to extend their recent dominance at Heps.

Though there might be some hesitation to tab the group as favorites after a loss to Princeton at HYP two weeks ago, the result served as a wake-up call for the team, who went through the same path two years ago en route to the first of its recent titles.

“The experience taught us that we needed to focus more,” captain Erika Veidis said. “The thing we drew from that meet is the other teams are really good…we can’t let up our game and we have to stay focused.”

Retaining the championship will require a team effort, with various athletes hoping to provide outstanding performances.

Senior Danielle Barbian leads the sprinters as she attempts to retain her individual title in the 60 meter dash, an event which has her name attached to it in the Ivy League record books. Fellow sprinter junior Autumne Franklin is going for her third straight 60 meter hurdle title.

In the distance portion of the field, Veidis faces tough competition from Princeton junior Cecilia Barowski as the Harvard runner aims to take home the 800 meter title after being runner-up by less than a second at the 2014 edition of the meet.

In the field component, sophomore and Ancient Eight record holder Nikki Okwelogu looks to claim her second-straight title in the shot put. She will be joined by senior weight thrower Taylor DuPont, who had a solid season with various top-five performances.

The men, meanwhile, will look to improve on their third place, 95-point performance from a year ago. The points mark was the highest for the Crimson men since 1985.

Harvard will have a challenge ahead of them as the men must replace points provided to them by then-seniors such as James Leakos ’14 and Maksim Korolev ’14. The former distance runners alone combined for 18 of the 95 points.

Though it might not be easy, Saretsky believes the team is capable of accomplishing it.

“I feel confident that we’ve got a group of guys that can match that point total,” Saretsky said. “The key…is focusing on what we can control.”

Captains Ben Glauser and Jarvis Harris will be among those expected to step up for the team, as the classmates have provided solid performances throughout the season in the weight throw and sprints, respectively.

Glauser will be joined in the weight throw by sophomore Joshua Whitener, as the two athletes took second and third in the event last year.

Harris will not be the only sprinter looking to make an impact, as rookies Malcolm Johnson and Ahmed Obed will look to provide points in their first Heps experience.

The distance component will be led by junior Tom Purnell, while seniors Will Geiken and Connor Reck look to contribute as well in their last Indoor Heps meet.

While certain individuals are tabbed for big performances, it will take a team effort from both newcomers and veterans in order to pull off the sweep and take home the title on both sides, a feat the team is confident on considering their success so far.

“The team has had good performances this year,” Veidis said. “In general, the team is pretty confident going in….We can definitely vie for the Ivy League Championship.”

— Staff writer Julio Fierro can be reached at julio.fierro@thecrimson.com.