Harvard football has been around longer than the Internet, television and even radio. After hundreds of games and thousands of plays, it seems odd that any current Crimson player could perform a feat which had not already been done many times over.

Yet this weekend at Dartmouth, freshman linebacker Dante Balestracci found a new record to break. In one game, Balestracci returned two interceptions for touchdowns while leading a Crimson defense that put away the Big Green, 49-7.

That effort makes Dante Balestracci the Harvard Crimson's Athlete of the Week.

Harvard has now won two straight Ivy League games and picked up the momentum necessary to make a run for the league title. A big part of the team's success has been on the defensive end, and Balestracci is quickly becoming the Crimson's most impressive linebacker, and, more importantly, a team leader.

Consider that Dante is Harvard's leading tackler, with a total of 59 tackles (five on Saturday), 39 coming unassisted. At 6'2, 225 pounds, Balestracci is both quick enough to rush the pass and strong enough to jump in and stuff the run. Even before the Dartmouth game, opposing teams realized this new young player was a force to be reckoned with.

They'll be even more worried now.

In the second quarter, with the Big Green already down 21-0, Balestracci applied the nail in the coffin. Dartmouth tried some trickery, lining up in a "diamond" formation that put receivers all over the place and the quarterback in the shotgun. With all the post-snap confusion caused by this offensive creativity, Dartmouth tried to run a fairly safe play, a shovel pass. It should have worked.

But Balestracci was there, getting in between the QB and tailback and tipping the ball in the air, then concentrating and pulling it in before outrunning the Big Green into the end zone.