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M., W. Track Throttle Yale

Like the brisk Cambridge winds, the Harvard men's and women's track teams swept through Yale saturday at Northeastern.

For the men's squad, it was a chance to redeem itself for a poor performance in horrible weather two weeks ago at Brown. There, the thinclads--suffering through snow and frigid temperatures--were outrun by Dartmouth and the host Bears. Yale  70 Harvard  93 Yale  45 Harvard  100

Saturday, the sun shone, and the Crimson ran past its arch-rival, 93-70.

"It was a superb performance from the whole team," co-captain Daniel Dusek said. "There were exceptional individual performances, but I can't emphasize enough what a great team effort it was."

Dusek himself led the way for Harvard's individual feats, opening the meet with a new Harvard record in the javelin.

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Dusek tossed the javelin 65 meters even to set the mark and grab the early lead for the Crimson.

From there, though, the meet seesawed back and forth.

"The meet was really close because our areas of strength were in Yale's weaknesses," co-captain Brian Henry said. "Yale was stronger where we were weaker."

Harvard picked up many of its points in the field events.

Harvard got wins from junior Stephen McCauley in the discus and shot put. In the shot, junior Chris Niemi and senior Joseph Ghartey Placed second and third to earn Harvard a sweep of the three scoring places of the event.

The Crimson also got a dramatic victory in the pole vault. Sophomore Matthew Brannon matched his Yale competitor's vault at 16' 8" (or 5.1 meters for the metrically inclined).

With the final vault height even, judges reverted to earlier marks to declare the winner. After several excruciating minutes, Brannon was given the first-place points because he had fewer misses in the previous vault.

Yale countered Harvard's field domination with winning performances in the sprints, and the meet was still neck-and-neck.

The turning point came in the 800. The Crimson, led by Henry, captured the victory in 1:51.74, swept the event and never trailed in the meet again.

"It was a really emotional event," said Henry, who was followed in the 800 by sophomore Matt Bundle and Junior Darin Shearer. "Yale led for most of the race but we pulled through."

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