Track and Field Posts Strong Results at Yale and Mt. SAC

After teaming up seven days ago to defeat Oxford and Cambridge, the Harvard and Yale track teams were rivals once again for the 115th rendition of their annual dual meet on Saturday.

The Crimson’s men's team, holding the historic advantage over the Bulldogs, maintained its superiority with a strong 113-50 victory on the day. The win represents Harvard’s sixth in seven such meetings improving its overall record against Yale to 65-49-1.

The women’s team would not achieve the same feat. With the majority of the team’s sprinters traveling to Torrance, California for the Mt. SAC relays, the Crimson women were missing some of their most competitive runners. As a result, the team fell to the Bulldogs, 66-88. Harvard’s loss ended a nine meet win streak over Yale, the longest streak of either team since the matchup began in 1978. Despite the loss, the women still hold a 27-12 advantage in the series.

YALE DUAL MEET

Hosting the Bulldogs in the dual meet at the McCurdy Outdoor Track, the Crimson men dominated nearly every aspect of their competition. The team established an early dominance with the sprints. Leading off in the 100-meter dash was tri-captain Efe Uwaifo. The senior took first in his first outdoor race this season with a time of 11.12 seconds. Only .02 seconds behind Uwaifo was teammate junior Matthew Hurst in the silver position. The junior sprinter also grabbed second in the 200-meter dash.

The gold Uwaifo won in the 100-meter dash wasn’t his only of the meet. The senior went on to claim two more, winning both long jump and triple jump with jumps of 7.35 and 14.48 meters, respectively.

In the 400-meter dash, the underclassman duo of sophomore Myles Marshall and freshman Tom Rienas took first and second, respectively. Marshall won the race in 48.11 seconds, finishing a little more than a second ahead of his teammate.

The one-two finish in the 400-meter would eventually be outdone by the clean sweep in the 3000-meter run. Freshman Will Battershill led the trio in his gold medal run at 8:33.32 seconds. Junior Tyler Spear and sophomore Kieran Tuntivate claimed the silver and bronze, respectively.

Harvard did nearly as well in the hurdling events. Taking silver in the 110s was junior Jay Hebert with a time of 14.33. In the 400-meter variant, freshman Jacob McLennan claimed the top spot, completing the race in a clean 54.41 seconds. Following in suit, sophomore Samuel Oh took the gold in the 3000-meter steeplechase.

The Crimson men excelled in the field events. Freshman Donagh Mahon picked up another gold this weekend in high jump, topping the crowd with a 2.00-meter leap. Tri-captain Andrew Roney likewise claimed the gold, though in pole vault, with a jump of 4.72 meters.

Harvard cleaned shop in the throwing events with gold in all four. Tri-captain Julian Nunally picked up three medals on the afternoon, two gold and one bronze. The senior won discus and shot put, while medaling in the hammer throw. Nunally finished fourth earlier in the season at the Indoor Ivy League Heptagonal Championships.

“The outdoor season has a more authentic track feel and it is something that everyone looks forward to,” Nunally said. “I look forward to seeing us compete throughout the rest of the season.”

Freshman Gunnar Allison also medaled in three events, taking second in discus and third in both shot put and the hammer throw. Josh Whitener picked up the final gold of the three events with his 51.98 meter throw of the hammer.

In javelin, the Crimson took one, two, and three. Senior Richard Bradley led the trio with a gold medal toss that traveled 58.01 meters. Freshman Anthony DeNitto’s throw landed 3.2 meters behind his teammate’s for the silver medal and junior Andrew Connolly’s threw 51.75 meters to round out the sweep.

For the women, despite the overall loss, the meet was full of personal bests. Senior Sylvia Deppen clocked her best collegiate time, at 12.20 seconds in the 100-meter dash to ascend the podium and win the event. The senior also grabbed another gold in the 400-meter hurdles, topping the crowd with a personal best of 1:02.57 seconds.

Second-team All-American for the indoor 5000-meter race, freshman distance runner Judy Pendergast achieved a second place finish in the 1500-meter race with a time of 4:28.58 seconds. In the same race, sophomore teammate Miranda Sadler finished just under seven seconds behind her teammate to take the bronze. Also running long distance was junior Elianna Shwayder, who took silver in the 3000-meter run. Her time of 9:49.13 was an outdoor best for the Saline, Michigan native.

In pole vault, Harvard took both first and second. Junior Marlena Sabatino achieved a gold medal jump at a height of 3.65 meters, just 1.5 meters above sophomore Nicole Trenchard in the silver position.

“It's exciting to cheer on teammates showing off their hard work as they finally get to throw javelin, discus and hammer as well as run the long hurdles and outdoor track relays,” Trenchard said. “It is always a fun to compete as a team.”

Co-captain Raegan Nizdil rounded out the success of the women against Yale with a gold medal and personal best throw of 29.95 meters in the javelin.

MT. SAC RELAYS

Taking to Torrance, California, the majority of the short distance runners for the women’s team competed in the more competitive Mt. SAC Relays.

Sophomore sprinter Gabby Thomas headlined the team’s success taking two medals. The first was a bronze in the 200-meter dash and the second a silver in the open 100-meter dash. In the former, Thomas clocked a 22.64 second finish, only .04 seconds off her season best.

Freshman Zoe Hughes competed for the Crimson in the heptathlon and finished in sixth place. The Hornchurch, U.K., native achieved the feat with 5444 points, a personal record, the second best finish in program history, and the fourth most points in Ivy League history. In her path to the medal, Hughes achieved personal bests in both the long jump and javelin events.

The 4x100-meter relay team also grabbed a season best in their path to a ninth place finish. The squad, featuring sophomore Ngozi Musa, Thomas, freshman Karina Joiner, and senior Jade Miller, crossed the finish line 45.23 seconds after the sound of the gun. The finish was the second fastest time in program history.

Miller and Joiner rounded out the weekend with successful finishes in the 400-meter hurdles. The former took bronze in the event with a time of 56.41 seconds while Joiner finished in sixth with a personal best time of 1:00.28.

The teams will travel next weekend to the Cardinal Classic in Stanford, California.

—Staff writer Cade Palmer can be reached at cade.palmer@thecrimson.com.