Women Take Second at Ivy Indoor Track Championships, Men Finish Fifth

The Harvard track and field women’s team placed second at the Ivy League Indoor championships this weekend through 20 events, with the men’s team settling for fifth — a one position dip from last year.

While the women’s team — which scored 160 points, just behind Princeton’s lead by eight points — improved on its performance last year, the men’s team — which in the past few years has often battled Princeton for the top Ivy position — wasn’t able to crack the top half of Ivy teams with a score of 62.

The championship meet in Ithaca, N.Y. comes after a season full of successes for the Crimson, with the women’s team claiming 10 first-place standings in the Ivy league. The men’s team also placed on top for five events in the Ivy League, including 60 meters, 5,000 meters, high jump, triple jump, and weight throw.

“It was really high energy— lots of people there,” sophomore high-jumper Tito Alofe said of the championship meet. “It’s just a very competitive and high energy environment.”

The competition began on Saturday, with a few key victories for the Crimson and qualifying races.

Senior Kenneth Ikeji, Ivy League record holder in the weight throw, started the Crimson men off strong by sweeping first place for the weight throw final. His score of 23.48 meters surpassed his 2024 record of 24.39 meters.

“I was pretty confident because I’ve been there a couple of times now,” Ikeji said. “One of my old coaches used to say the only pressure that’s real pressure is the pressure you put on yourself and I usually don’t really put much pressure on myself.”

The team also placed first and second consecutively in the pole vault final, where freshman Ella McRitchie performed at 4.36 meters and senior Anastasia Retsa at 4.26 meters.

In a tight preliminary race for the 200 meters, freshman Liam Acevedo, junior Jonas Clarke, freshman Jordan Coleman, freshman Harlow Tong, and freshman Hudson Allain were fifth, sixth, seventh, ninth, and thirteenth place respectively all within 0.30 seconds of each other.

More of the Crimson women also asserted their strong performances in qualifying races, with senior Chloe Fair qualifying first in the 400m and third in the 200 meters, and junior Fabiola Belibi qualifying first in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.43 seconds. The second qualifying slot went to junior Izzy Goudros at 8.45 seconds.

Goudros, the Ivy League’s top scorer in three events this season, excelled in four events, also qualifying second in the 60 meters, first in the 200 meters, and placing second in the long jump final just 0.02 meters from the first place score.

By the end of Saturday, the men’s team’s score was 22 in third place just after Princeton’s 22.5 and Cornell’s 25, with six points from the 3,000 meters, six from pole vault, and 10 from weight throw.

The women’s team came out to second place with a score of 54, just two points shy of Princeton’s 56 points. The women’s team earned 14 points from the 3,000 meters, 18 from pole vault, 12 from long jump, and 10 from weight throw.

Sunday also proved to be a successful run for the Crimson.

On the women’s side, Belibi beat her personal best team in the 60-meter hurdles and nabbed a first place win at 8.34 seconds.

In the women’s 500 meter race, senior Victoria Bossong made up for the close second place qualifying on Saturday by sweeping first place with a facility record time of 1:09.39.

Bossong also holds the Ivy’s top season records in the 400 meters and 800 meters and is the first student to win the 500 meters for four consecutive years.

“We did a lot of preparation as a team to be on the same page as our goals and our mindsets,” Fair said. “That’s the one thing that we were really set on bringing this weekend, was high energy and supporting each other, and I think we more than did that.”

Fair continued her streak by securing the first place spot in the women’s final 400-meter dash with a time of 53.53 seconds and fell to fourth in the final 200 meter race. Goudros fell from first to second in the 200-meter final, and maintained her second place spot in the 60-meter hurdles.

For the women’s 5000 meters, junior Molly Malague crossed the finish line at 16:10.32, seizing first place. This is Malague’s first individual Ivy League title, as last year she placed sixth at 16:22.79.

In both the women’s distance medley and 4x400 meters, the Crimson broke through with first place wins and set new facility records. The Crimson women beat their opponents by asserting a significant lead of 8.87 seconds in the distance medley.

For the men, junior Joe Ewing also hiked up from sixth place on Saturday to second place in the men’s 1000 meters, with a time of 2:22.24.

Alofe earned second place in the high jump with a height of 2.21 meters, beating his 2024 third place finish at 2.11 meters. Alofe currently holds the Conference’s season title in the high jump category — though he’s been struggling with injury.

“I was actually one of the people who underperformed,” Alofe said. “I got second in the high jump when I was expected to win.”

He intends to aim higher for the upcoming national championships, but his priority remains continuing to recover from his injury and not succumbing to pressure.

In a tight push for the men’s 4x400, the Crimson came in at fifth place with a time of 3:15.47. In the distance medley, the team started off first place before falling to second, then eighth, but quickly recovered to a final standing at fifth in 9:53.68.

“Compared to some other years, it wasn’t as best of a performance, but the team is also pretty young this year,” Ikeji said about the men’s results. “I think everyone did their best and everyone went out and tried, so it wasn’t too bad. We’ve had some injuries and stuff like that so it was kind of tough competing with the other schools.”

“It’s a stepping stone,” he added. “I feel like the team is still confident that we can perform better in the outdoor season.”

However, the Crimson still proved their strengths, with LeRoy “Alex” Horton dashing to first place at 6.76 seconds for the men’s 60 meters — a moment Alofe identified as a highlight of the meet.

“Alex won the 60 as a freshman,” Alofe said. “ That doesn't happen very often.”

Despite the efforts on the men’s side, the team was unable to pull out a podium finish by the end of the weekend.

Still, the Crimson will have a chance at redemption — and to prove itself on a national stage — next week at national championships in Virginia.

“We just found out actually a couple hours ago, officially, that our four by four also made it into nationals.” Fair said. “We just want to be First Team All-American,” Fair said. “I think we’re more than capable of it, so we’re definitely really excited.”