The women's cross country team was the Nancy Kerrigan of Harvard athletics last year. It was expected to shine. It was the victim of misfortune. And just about everyone felt sorry for it.
The team went into the season returning four of five standouts from a 1992 squad that had finished second at Heptagonals (Heps), the season-ending meet which is the rough equivalent of a league championship. By the end of the season all four were out with injuries. In addition, the squad's top freshman, Karen Goetze, went down with a freak ankle injury sustained in a practice session the night before Heps. The squad finished a disappointing seventh out of nine teams (the Ivy League plus Navy) the next day.
"It was a disappointing year in a lot of ways," coach Frank Haggerty says. "We came in with high expectations only to have them go down with a number of freak injuries. We were hurting all fall."
This year, though, the violins have stopped. The team has tried to drown whatever memories of last year's misfortune with hard summer training and a rugged pre-season workout regimen.
The training began on June 8, when Haggerty mailed each athlete a detailed summer workout schedule.
"Anymore, you have to train over the summer or you will be dead, just dead," he says. "If a runner tries to start training in September, she won't be able to compete. The competition is just too good."
All upperclassmen reported to Cambridge for fall practices on September 2. Here they have practiced twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. The morning workouts have been the more intense, while afternoons have been more easy-going.
"We definitely seem to be in better shape than we were last year," Haggerty says. "The women trained hard over the summer and are in good shape. Also, we haven't had the injuries."
Due to the number of injuries to upperclassmen last season, the Crimson was forced to rely on many freshman. The dividends of their precocious exposure to Ivy League running should be felt this season.
"I've been particularly impressed with some of our returning sophomores and juniors," Haggerty says. "On the whole they improved a lot through the course of last season, and they seem to have matured even more this year. We are definitely deeper."
Foremost among those returning from last season will be Goetze, senior Kelly Benke and senior Meredith Fitzgerald. The three were the mainstays in a line-up which was turned on its head more than a few times last season.
The team will be welcoming two freshmen: Margaret Angell and Heather Stroud. Angell hails from New York, while Stroud comes from Mattapoisett, MA. Neither has been participating in pre-season work-outs as it is a policy of Haggerty only to invite upperclassmen back early.
"We try to blend them into the system gradually," he says. "In addition to pre-season, we generally have them sit out the first and usually the second meets of the season."
Traditionally, the focal point of the season is Heps. This year Haggerty sees the competition at the meet as being particularly heated.
"There are a lot of teams out there who could take the league," Haggerty says. "Dartmouth, Cornell and Princeton will all be tough to beat, as will Navy."
Of the four, Dartmouth seems to be the team to beat. The Big Green was one of two teams in New England--the other was Providence--to qualify for nationals last season. It returns six of its starting eight.
"The return just about everybody," Haggerty says. "They are definitely the team to beat."
The next best bet to take the crown is Cornell. The Big Red took the Heps meet last season and should be strong again this year, despite losing key performers.
Pre-season prognostications put the Crimson as somewhere in the "also running" third tier, along with Princeton and Navy. This comes despite last year's misfortunes and poor finish at Heps.
"Potentially we have a very strong team," Haggerty says. "Most of those who graduated were injured for a good portion of last year, we will be returning a lot of players who were injured and everyone else has gotten one year better. This year, I think we could turn it around."
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