Track And Field Kicks Off 2016 With Nine First-Place Finishes

The Harvard men’s and women’s track and field squads kicked off their seasons on Friday with a combined nine event wins at the Southern Tier Collegiate Invite in Ithaca, N.Y. Solid performances from consistent contributors and recent newcomers alike showcased the team’s depth across the board.

Co-captain Autumne Franklin and senior Kieran Gallagher claimed first place in the 60-meter hurdle and 1000-meter run, respectively. In the high jump, junior Raegan Nizdil also came home with the gold with a height of 1.73 meters, a leap just off her career high of 1.75. Fellow junior Brandon Price put forth a 4:16.69 in the mile to claim first as well.

In her first time running the event, senior Christi Scott ran to a 57.16 gold medal finish in the 400-meter dash. However, this was not the only career first for a member of the Crimson squad on the day. In the 3000-meter run, senior Emma Payne, a former walk-on, claimed the first victory of her college career with a personal best of 10:05.36.

“Her patience and grit is so inspirational,” Gallagher said. “She came in as a walk-on and now she's one of our top scorers in the distance events.”

But the upperclassmen were not the only ones to have success in Ithaca. Harvard’s overall depth was on display throughout the day as both squads’ newcomers were eager to put a stamp on their young careers. The freshman competitors posted seven podium finishes in individual contests.

“For some of them, it’s their second meet for Harvard,” men’s co-captain James Lim said. “For a lot of them this is their first meet ever with Harvard Track and Field. I think this just showed us exactly how much depth that we have in our freshman class.”

On the men’s side, pole vaulter Ian West claimed bronze with his 4.65-meter vault, while fellow rookie runners Liam Hackett and Myles Marshall both placed second in the 1000-meter and 500-meter events, respectively. Hackett’s time of 2:36.76 fell just behind sophomore Jonas Aranda’s 2:32.82 career best, pace-setting mark. Marshall, on the other hand, looks to build off of the strong performance as he expands his workload in the future.

“[Marshall] ran the 500 and ran a pretty good time,” Lim said. “We definitely think he can contribute across a lot more events so he’ll run different events in the coming weeks and we’ll see where he’s at, but he had a solid season opener.”

Freshman Gabby Thomas showed her prowess in the sprints by claiming gold in both the women’s 60-meter dash and 200-meter dash. The Florence, Mass. native’s time of 7.54 helped her best fellow rookie sprinter Ngozi Musa’s third place mark of 7.67 in the 60-meter event.

Even more impressive was Thomas’ victory in the 200 as she was, by posting her 24.68 mark, able to outrun Franklin, consistently a top Ivy League finisher in the event, by a half second. Malia Ellington was the final freshman medalist for the Crimson with her second place result of 5:00.24 in the mile run.

“It's exciting to have such a strong freshman class,” Gallagher said. “We graduated some key scorers last year but the freshman are really stepping up, which will hopefully make a big difference at Heps.”

Since Cornell is also the host for the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships in February, the meet provided Harvard with a great chance to prepare for the road that lies ahead.

“The main point of the meet was to get a feel for what it’s like to travel to Cornell, and compete there,” Lim said. “I think that overall the meet went very solidly. The team brought the energy, the effort and executed their own things that they had to do at a very high level.”

—Staff writer Jackson M. Reynolds can be reached at jacksonreynolds@college.harvard.edu.