Overall, the team is looking forward to a strong performance today to carry them through the remainder of the season.

"We are nearing the most important part of the season," Friedman said. "So hopefully all our hard work will show in improvement over times run earlier this year."

"I am excited about Friday's race," Baker added. "Our team has a lot of potential, as I have seen during some of our workouts, and I think that it's about time we realize this potential in one of our races."

Harvard Women

The Crimson will compete with 250 women from around New England on their 5-kilometer race at Franklin Park this afternoon.

Harvard has been working on decreasing the gap between its No. 1 and No. 5 runners. Last weekend at Yale, the Crimson took the No. 1 and No. 6 places, but its third runner placed only No. 14. In today's race, the runners will try to go out strong at the beginning of the race and work hard to maintain position.

"We have had some good practices at Franklin Park where we have been working on maintaining pace throughout the first two miles," captain Kate Moynihan said. "And we have been working at running in packs, so hopefully all of this will come together for us as a team on [today]."

Like the men's team, the women's squad is using this race as a test before Heptagonals next weekend.