The Harvard men's and women's team set out to defend their home field at the Gordon Track and Tennis Center with commanding performances in Saturday's tri-meet against the Princeton Tigers and the Yale Bulldogs.

The men's team faced the daunting task of trying to defeat the Tigers (2-3, 2-0 Ivy), who despite no wins entering the meet, were ranked eighth in the nation in indoor track. Unfortunately, Princeton impressively took command of the races and ran away with the meet, defeating Harvard (4-2, 2-2 Ivy) 79-49. Nevertheless, the Crimson responded with a narrow defeat of the Bulldogs 49-45.

The women's team entered the meet hoping to keep its season record unblemished against Princeton and Yale. The Crimson (6-0, 4-0 Ivy) swept through its Ivy rivals to remain undefeated. It was led by three-event winning junior Brenda Taylor, and defeated the Elis 69-60 and the Tigers 69-30.

Harvard Men

The Harvard men's team posted a triad of first place finishes. Coming in first in the 60-meter hurdles was sophomore Richard Bravin with a time of 8.17 seconds. In the high jump, freshman Taylor Buckley leaped over the competition on his way to a top finish with a jump of 1.91 meters.

The men's two-mile relay would provide drama for the meet. By this point, Princeton had already clinched the H-Y-P title, but second place would be determined by the relay.

"We were all tired after running our races," Patillo said. "It's not the most enjoyable race, except when you have that extra competition on the line. Before we ran, the starter told us that this race would be the difference-maker."

As in the tri-meet against Brown and Cornell, the first three legs of the relays, run by sophomore John Cinelli and freshmen John Traugott and Christopher Antunes, kept the race close for captain Dominic Patillo. On his third lap, Patillo passed the Princeton runner and built a lead that he would never give back. The win ensured that a Crimson victory over the Elis.

"This sure feels a lot better," said Patillo, reminded by the painful team loss to Cornell after an exciting win in the two-mile relay two weeks ago.

The Crimson sprinters did a phenomenal job in the 60-meter dash, placing four men in the top six. Freshman John Meaker led the way with a second-place finish of 7.11 seconds. Close behind were sophomore Daniel Miree (7.20), freshman Michael Atkinson (7.26), and sophomore Samuel Hornblower (7.27).

The Crimson tide was also powered by four other second-place finishes. Junior John Kraay muscled his way to a second place finish in the shot put with a throw of 16.29 meters while sophomore Aaron Snead won second place in the pole vaulting competition leaping 4.50 meters.

Sophomore Kobie Fuller ran to a second-place finish in the 400-meter dash while Cinelli won second place in the 1000-meter run with a time of 2:28.99.

The competitive tension was broken for a minute in the 500-meter dash as an Eli runner lost his shoe on the second lap. Nevertheless, Bulldog Don Carson ran the last 300 meters with one shoe on his way to a second-place finish in the event.

Harvard Women

The undefeated women's team kept pushing towards another first-place finish. Leading the way was Taylor with resounding victories in the 60-meter hurdles (8.44 seconds), the 60-meter dash (7.69 seconds), and the 200-meter dash (24.22 seconds).

Junior Marna Schutte placed second in the 200-meter dash, giving the Crimson a one-two finish in the event with a time of 25.14 seconds. Schutte also won first place in the 400-meter dash with a time of 55.16 seconds, Crimson sweep of the top places along with sophomore Carrie McGraw (57.16) and freshmen Kendra Barron (58.05) and Amanda Shanklin (58.71).

The Crimson also grabbed the first three spots in the 60-meter hurdles, with Taylor and freshman Alayna Miller (8.94 seconds) and Shanklin (9.13) beating the crowd.

Junior Dora Gyorrfy continued her dominance with an impressive first-place finish in the high jump at 1.90 meters. Junior Mary Unsworth also won her event, the mile run, emphatically clocking at 4:49.55. Unsworth took a commanding lead early in the first lap and never looked back. The chasing pack never closed to within 100 meters of her for the entire race.

"It's an additional challenge running alone, with no one pushing you," Unsworth said. "My strategy was to race the clock and to get as good a time as I could."

Every time she passed the Crimson stands, the Harvard fans would cheer her name out, motivating her to keep her solid pace.

Also finishing strong was freshman Amy Bei who won the women's pole vaulting competition with a vault of 3.00 meters. She was followed closely by sophomore Loni Sherwin, who finished third with a vault of 2.70 meters. In the women's shot put, Jill Kometsky finished second with a throw of 12.95 meters. The mile relay team also finished first.

Both teams travel for the weekend to Dartmouth on Feb. 26 to participate in the Heptagonal Championships.