The Harvard men's and women's track teams opened their outdoor seasons over spring break with two meets down in Texas-the Rice Bayou Classic and the Texas Southern Relays.

The two meets prepared the teams for the Ivy season that opens next Saturday with a tri-meet at Dartmouth with Brown.

For the women, the road trip was another step in their quest to sweep this year's Heptagonal Championships. Having won the Indoor Heps in February, Harvard is favored to avenge last year's loss to Brown in the Outdoor Heps in May.

The meets were also the first chance for two of Harvard's Olympic Trial qualifiers--junior captain Brenda Taylor (400 m intermediate hurdles) and junior Chris Clever (javelin)--to showcase their talents in the outdoor season.

Rice Bayou Classic

With the Crimson women, Rice, and Stephen F. Austin all within two points of each other in the final team standings, this meet was ridiculously close.

Unfortunately, Harvard came up on the short end. Stephan F. Austin won with 151 points, while the Crimson tied Rice for second place with 149 points. Texas A&M-Kingsville and Wake Forest finished a distant fourth and fifth, respectively.

The Crimson men finished third in the final team standings with 115 points. Stephan F. Austin managed to edge out Rice, 157-153. Texas A&M-Kingsville was fourth.