‘Training Like a Champion’: After Record Breaking Season, Harvard Indoor Track Hopeful for Ivy League Championship

Harvard Track and Field will look to build on a record-breaking season this weekend at Indoor Ivy League championships, after setting more than ten school and league records since December.

The record-setting athletes attributed their success to the team’s “camaraderie” and consistent intensity at practice.

The Crimson’s Ivy League records from this season include the women’s distance medley relay, the women’s pentathlon, and women’s pole vault, while the team has set school records in the men’s 60 meters, men’s high jump, women’s 4x400-meter relay, women’s long jump, and sprinting events like the women’s 300 meters, 800 meters, and 1000 meters.

This weekend, the Crimson will travel up to Ithaca, NY to compete in the Ivy League Indoor Heptagonal Championships at Cornell. Several Track and Field athletes said they are unsure whether Harvard will clinch the league title. Last year, the titles went to the Princeton men’s and Penn women’s teams, though Harvard women’s and men’s teams took respective first and second place wins in 2023.

“Last year was a little tough for us. We weren’t really in a place we wanted,” senior sprinter Izzy Goudros said. “We have a fire in us now that we want to come back and we want to be on the top, so I think there’s a lot of energy. I think we all have this big goal again.”

Senior sprinter Victoria Bossong, who holds several short distance school records and the Ivy League women’s distance medley record, said she expects the meet to be a “battle,” but one the Crimson have been preparing for all season.

“We tried to have that championship mentality the entire season, so that it’s not like, ‘Let’s just turn this on the week before,’” she said. “We practice every single day with that mindset, so that this week can just be a regular week of training like a champion.”

The team’s “competitive nature” has driven them to new heights this season, according to sophomore sprinter Timi Esan.

“Everyone wants to be the best — which is, especially in track, a really good philosophy to have,” he said.

At the start of each season, the team sets a number of collective goals, Goudros said, including getting the women’s relay to nationals.

“Knowing that we have these goals and it’s a collective thing that we all want — it helps hold each other accountable when we’re at practice,” she said.

The team’s goal is likely to become a reality, as the women’s 4x400-meter relay is currently eighth in the NCAA and well within the top 12 teams set to receive an invite to next month’s national championship in Virginia Beach. But the eighth place spot was hard won — dissatisfied with their previous 12th place standing, the team chose to run the event once more Friday night to see if they could improve their rank.

The four runners — Bossong and Goudros, along with senior Chloe Fair and sophomore Sophia Gorriaran — warmed up in a “silent,” “empty” arena before they were joined at the last minute by a familiar cheering squad.

“It was like ten minutes before the 4x4,” Bossong said. “We just watched our whole team just pour out, walk into the indoor track. We were about to cry, it was so beautiful seeing everyone come together – guys and girls. They brought signs, and honestly that helped us so much.”

Friday night’s race cut more than one second off the relay team’s time with a finish of 3:30.28, moving them to a more comfortable eighth place.

“It really was a team effort that day. If they weren’t there, I don’t know if we would’ve been able to do it,” Bossong added.

Esan — who set a school record of 6.68 in the men’s 60 meters at the Crimson Elite meet on Feb. 7 — also said he could thank his teammates’ support at “every single practice” for extra motivation to push himself.

“When people are cheering for you, and you hear certain voices and you recognize them, it just boosts you, gives you that extra spring in your step that you need,” he said.

Goudros said the team’s success could be traced to an “excellence” in team culture and a “change in the mindset” after a series of Harvard national championship wins and Olympics appearances, including by Gabby Thomas ’19, Maia Ramsden ’24 and senior Graham Blanks.

“All the excellence that surrounds you, I think it pushes you,” Goudros said. “When you see Graham win the title for cross country, I think you realize — it is possible to be at the top level of your sport and be a student at Harvard.”

Several Harvard Track and Field athletes said they have noticed an increase in national renown for the program.

“We still get asked the question every now and then — at meets, they’re like, ‘Oh Harvard, you’re here?” they’re like, ‘Oh, you guys are Division One?’” Bossong said. “I get where that comes from, but I think we’ve worked so hard to change that narrative.”

“I think now, people aren’t going to be too surprised to see Harvard at nationals,” she added.

—Staff writer Azusa M. Lippit can be reached at azusa.lippit@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @azusalippit or on Threads @azusalippit.