Harvard Women’s Track and Field Completes Historic 11th Place Finish at Indoor Nationals, Men Finish 46th

Harvard women’s track and field finished 11th at the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s nationals with a score of 18 points, the team’s highest finish and score in indoor track history.

Harvard’s women’s team was able to set itself up for success in Virginia Beach, Virginia at Norfolk State University this weekend and led the meet with 11 First Team All American designations — the most of any school in attendance.

Harvard men’s track and field finished 46th with a total of three points to close out their indoor season.

Every entry on the women’s team placed in the top eight, including two relays and three individual competitors.

The women’s 4x400 placed sixth and capped off their record-breaking indoor season. The team was made up of seniors Chloe Fair, Victoria Bossong, and Izzy Goudros and sophomore Sophia Gorriaran, all of whom competed in other events where they were named All Americans.

Harvard’s distance medley relay — composed of seniors Marianne Mihas, Fair, Ellaney Matarese and junior Penelope Salmon — claimed a clean seventh place finish, marking Fair’s second relay and second successful run of the weekend.

Bossong took second place in the women’s 800 meter, where Gorriaran ran for a seventh place finish. Goudros closed off her senior indoor season with a sixth place finish in the heptathlon. With their performances, both athletes earned First Team All-American honors for the first time in their college careers.

Bossong, who competed at her first and last indoor nationals this past weekend, said she was “grateful for the opportunity” to take part in both the 4x400 meter relay and the 800 meter, and to achieve success with her teammates.

For the men’s team, senior thrower Kenneth Ikeji placed sixth in the weight throw with a distance of 78 feet 9 ¾ inches, marking his best performance of the season. Sophomore high jumper Tito Alofe finished eleventh with a jump of 7 feet 1 inch, earning him Second-Team All American status.

Alofe, who said he was ranked seventh going into the meet, said his personal performance was not at the level he was hoping for after finishing fourth in outdoor nationals last year.

However, he added that he enjoyed watching the rest of his teammates excel. Alofe said that the most exciting part of the meet was watching the success of the women’s team, especially given their points were scored by multiple athletes across events.

“For them to do that well with such a spread out effort was really special and means a lot going into outdoor and future seasons,” Alofe said.

Bossong said this year marked the greatest number of athletes Harvard has sent to track nationals, which gave more athletes the opportunity to score points for their team — an opportunity that every single female athlete competing was able to do.

“It was really a team effort, which is really cool, rather than just one or two people getting all the points for our team,” Bossong said.

The team begins its outdoor season this week while training in California, where they’ll compete on Friday and Saturday.

Bossong, who is entering her final months on the team, said she wants to enjoy her last outdoor season and her last time training with the team, while keeping her goals — and a national title — in sight.

“A national championship is something I would love to achieve, so just continuing to train the way I have and holding myself accountable to just being as best as I can going to the outdoor season,” Bossong said.

—Staff writer Elyse C. Goncalves can be reached at elyse.goncalves@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @e1ysegoncalves.