Both the Harvard men's and women's indoor track teams have good reason to be optimistic looking into the coming season, which resumes tomorrow afternoon with the Harvard Invitational meet at the Gordon Indoor Track and Tennis Center.

The women's team, captained by seniors Brenda Taylor and Marna Schutte, is coming off a banner year. The Crimson won the Indoor Heptagonals--its league championship meet--for the first time in 10 years.

With nearly every competitor who placed last year returning this season and a freshman class that has already left its mark on the all-time performance list, there is no reason to doubt that the team can do it again.

"We have the potential to have perhaps the strongest team we've ever had," Harvard Coach Frank Haggerty said.

On the men's side, Harvard stands little chance of overtaking Princeton and Penn--who are stacked as usual--but the Crimson, captained by seniors Chris Clever and John Kraay, looked strong in its opening meet last Saturday

. "We have fabulous leadership this year from our captains, on both the men's and women's teams," Haggerty said. "That fact in and of itself makes us better. The captains are very passionate about what they're doing. They are leading by example and raising everyone to a higher level."

On the last weekend of February, Harvard will host the Heptagonal Championship meet. The desire to impress the home crowd will be good motivation for the two teams throughout the course of the season.

Harvard Women

The Crimson women were impressive last season in winning the Indoor Heps and then placing third in the Outdoor Heps in May.

Winning both meets this season would be even more impressive. The team may have just enough depth to pull it off this year.

"I think we will win [both]," said Schutte, who has consistently placed highly for the Crimson in the 200 and the 400 at Heps. "We're especially looking forward to the Indoor Heps because they're at Harvard. With freshmen like Kart Sillats and upperclassmen we have like [junior] Nicky Grant, we'll have enough depth."

Any hopes of a one-shot track title always come with the disclaimer, "barring injury."

"In meets like Heps you can place high enough with a smaller number of people," Haggerty said. "But unlike other sports, when you're looking at your next-best person, you're probably going from 10 to zero points."

Harvard has managed to avoid injury in recent seasons, despite the most strenuous of workloads. Taylor, in particular, manages to run at least three events per meet without wearing down.

"Obviously what we would like is not to have to have her in that situation," Haggerty said.

But Taylor, who also captained the team as a junior, has never failed to do absolutely everything she can to help her team win.

At Outdoor Heps last season, she set school records in the 100-meter high hurdles and 4x100 relay before re-injuring her hamstring while setting another school record in the 100-meter dash. She still ran in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles. Despite the injury, she finished second.

The women's track team has had no shortage of inspirational performances. Junior thrower Nicky Grant competed last Saturday, despite breaking her toe in a weight room mishap. The toe made it impossible for her to throw with proper technique.

But it didn't stop her from making the best throw in school history. Her 17.71-meter throw beat the NCAA Provisional Qualifying mark and fell just a few centimeters short of the best-ever Ivy throw by Yale's Melanie Harris.

"That performance was just awesome," Schutte said. "It was very inspiring to see her make that throw. You wouldn't expect her to have even a good throw with an injury like that, but she had a great throw."

If Grant can make a personal-best throw while hurt, she should be capable of even more when healthy. "Technically she can't throw properly with the broken toe," Haggerty said. "She could probably improve another two feet."

Freshman high jumper Kart Sillats also set an NCAA Provisional mark last Saturday with a 1.84-meter leap. Only senior Dora Gyorffy, the defending NCAA Indoor champion in the event, has ever jumped higher in school history.

Gyorrfy took this semester off to compete in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She will be back in the spring, and she will be eligible to compete in Indoor Heps.

"Right now, I think we're looking at one-two in the high jump, barring any kind of injury," Haggerty said.

Gyorffy has also won several league triple jump titles as well, and should be favored to repeat again. Sillats also competes in a second event, the long jump. Gyorffy, Sillats, and sophomore Helena Ronner--who finished second in the long jump at Outdoor Heps last year--will make the triple jump and long jump strong events for Harvard.

Last Saturday, freshman pole vault Andrea Li became the second Harvard freshman in as many years to break the school record. Her 11-foot jump just edged out the record set by sophomore Bryce Weed set in her first meet last year.

"I told Andrea she had a lot of potential when I saw her," Haggerty said. "Bryce will be competitive once she adjusts to some new technique. But they'll both need to reach the 12-foot level in order to place highly at Heps."

Freshman thrower Breeanna Gibson was the other freshman event-winner last Saturday in the shot put. The Crimson will need someone to make up for the absence of sophomore Jill Kornetsky from the team this year.

According to Haggerty, freshman Sandra Venghaus should make Harvard competitive in the pentathlon for the first time in recent history.

Sophomore sprinter Jen Leath, who placed at Heps last year, and runners Carrie McGraw and Amanda Shanklin, who both won events on Saturday, are other upperclassmen who have the potential to place at Heps in February.

The Crimson has struggled to score in the distances thus far, but the team will wait and see how the freshman will develop.

"It's hard to tell at this stage," Schutte said. "Freshman like Mairead O'Callaghan and Leann Hymas are going to be up there."

Harvard Men

One athlete to watch this season will be senior Arthur Fergusson, who has placed second in the triple jump and long jump at Outdoor Heps last year.

"For Arthur, the competition is there," Haggerty said. "This could really be a banner year for him."

The two captains, Kraay and Clever, should both place highly again at Heps.

Clever placed in the weight throw in Indoor Heps. He should especially shine in the javelin in the spring, an event in which he is the two-time defending Heptagonal champion. Kraay placed second in the shot put at Outdoor Heps last year.

Senior Ed Baker is coming off his best cross-country season. He placed third at the cross-country Heptagonal meet and sixth at the NCAA qualifier. He will highlight Harvard's distance events during the track season.

This may be the year for senior Chuck Nwokocha. The sprinter, whose 93-yard kickoff return for a touchdown was the brightest spot of The Game, will be with the team for the full season now that he no longer has to leave for spring football.

"Chuck's as good as anyone in the league on paper," Haggerty said.

Three juniors--Kobie Fuller in the 400, distance runner John Cinelli and pole vaulter Aaron Snead--are all looking to build on their point-scoring performances at Heps last year.

Sprinter Brandon Smith, distance runner Alistair McLean-Forman, hurdler Michael Whalen and high-jumper Tekky Andrew-Jaja all won their events in their freshman debuts.

Harvard placed a disappointing last at Indoor Heps last year. High-level performances by Fergusson, Clever, Kraay, and Fuller and a few points from the freshmen should be enough to raise the Crimson back to a respectable placing.