The Harvard women's cross country team takes what it can Goetze.

All puns aside, in 1994 it got a lot, thanks to sophomore rocket Karen Goetze. The second team All-Ivy runner from Paris, France paced Harvard in the Harvard-Yale-Princeton triangular with a first-place finish, helping the Crimson win the meet for the first time in eight years."

There were also other high points to Harvard's season. The Crimson knocked off Brown and Northeastern in another triangular, finished fifth in the Heptagonal Championships (up two spots from last year) and came in 15th in the ECAC Championships at the end of the season.

Not too bad for a squad that only wanted to stay healthy.

In 1993, the Crimson lost four of its top runners to injuries before Heps, with the final malady coming to Goetze the night before.

"It was a disappointing year in a lot of ways," Harvard coach Frank Haggerty said. "We came in with high expectations only to have them go down with a number of freak injuries. We were hurting all fall."

But in 1994, the Crimson sprung out of the E.R. running. A talented group of underclassmen, featuring Goetze, freshman Margaret Angell, sophomore Jenny Martin, sophomore Christine-Sheppard Sawyer and sophomore Jessica Mikszewski were complemented by senior Meredith Fitzgerald and captain Kelly Benke.

The fall began with a second-place finish in the Fordham Invitational, with defending Heps champ Cornell taking the win, and a eighth-place finish in the Boston College Invitational out of 30 teams.

But those races are really just warm-ups for the H-Y-Ps, Heps and ECACs, for those are the only meets that really count for much of anything.

And in the H-Y-Ps, nothing could stop the Crimson's tide. Goetze took the proverbial checkerd flag, crossing the tape in 17:58--the best crimson time ever in the three years that the course has been in use.

The other Harvard harriers stayed at the front of the pack, too. Angell came in fourth, Martin sixth, Sheppard-Sawyer seventh and Miksezewski ninth. That gave the Crimson five runners in the top 10, which almost guarentees you of winning a triangular.

"We were tired of losing to them," Goetze said. "The H-Y-P meet has a lot of symbolic importance for us. It's the last meet before Heps, for one, and it is also just a great rivalry. We wanted to deliver."

The victory gave Harvard a good head of steam going into the Heps. It was pretty obvious that Dartmouth, Brown and Cornell were going to duke it out for the top three spots, which left the other six teams (the Ivy Leaguers plus Navy) to battle for the rest of the places.

Dartmouth ended up edging out Brown and Cornell, 46-51-52. Then there was a great rift, followed by Navy (116) and Harvard (118). The good news for the Crimson was that it again defeated its H-Y-P foes, as Princeton came in sixth at 135 and Yale finished eighth at an even 200. Goetze led all Harvard runners with a seventh-place finish (18:42) and was followed by Angell (21st), Sheppard-Sawyer (28), Fitzegerald (29) and Mikszewski (33).

In the ECAC Championships, Harvard captured the 15th spot in the meet and seventh spot in District I. To qualify for Nationals, Harvard would have had to place in one of the top two slots, and Providence, ranked No. 1 in the nation, was practically assured of one of those. Goetze again led Harvard runners with a 23rd place finish.

Coming in 15th at the ECACs wasn't the Crimson's dream, but it still was a pretty successful season. If the injury bug can stay away for another year, who knows what will happen? There's a H-Y-P title to defend.