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.

Though Harvard teams did not win either meet, it really didn't matter. Since many of the top Crimson athletes did not make the trip, and those who did come had no real motivation to push themselves to the best of their ability, the results were certainly not indicative of the Crimson's talent.

Harvard Women

Taylor and sophomore Nicky Grant were the two Crimson individual winners.

Grant, who set an Ivy-record in the weight throw this past Indoor season, won the hammer with a throw of 46.08m. The Harvard throwers swept the event, with freshmen Jill Kornetsky (43.86) and Donielle Colich (42.86) taking second and third, respectively. Kornetsky was also the top Crimson finisher in two events, placing third in the shot put with a 12.51m throw, and finishing fifth in the discus with a toss of 41.02m.

In the javelin, Colich--following up a winning performance in the javelin at the Texas Southern Relays--placed second with a 36.06m throw. Freshman Lauren Hirshon finished third.

In the 400 intermediate hurdles, Taylor made up for a disappointing second-place finish at Texas Southern a week before with a top-notch 58.07 second run. Sophomore Carrie McGraw and freshman Amanda Shanklin both improved on their performances from the previous weekend. McGraw finished second with a time of 1:02.11, and Shanklin placed fourth.

Taylor also finished second in the 100m high hurdles with a time of 13.84 seconds.

It was the first meet of the season for the Harvard sprinters and distance runners. Sophomore Erin Larkspur was the top Crimson runner, with a 17:45.63 time that placed her third in the 5000m.

Senior Bethany Helms placed sixth finishing the 800m in 2:16.27 time. In the 400m, junior Marna Schutte, a champion in the event at Heps, finished only fourth with a time of 55.46, far short of her best performance.

Harvard Men

Captain Dominic Patillo and junior Tarek Hamid were the two individual champions for the Crimson.

Hamid won the hammer with a 46.22m throw. With only Harvard athletes competing in the event, Clever placed second with a 44.74 toss. Sophomore David Grimm finished third.

Clever was third in the javelin with a 58.42m throw.

Junior John Kraay was the top Crimson finisher in the shot put and the discus.

Kraay's throw of 44.54m placed him second in the discus. Freshman Ian Shelswell toss of 43.00 placed him third.

Kraay earned his second-place finish in the shot put with a 15.45m throw, while Grimm finished fourth in the event.

Patillo won the 1500m with a 3:58.87 time. Sophomore John Cinelli was fourth with a time of 4:02.73.

In the 400m, sophomore Osahon Omoregie grabbed third with a time of 48.93m.

Junior Arthur Fergusson leaped 14.30m to place second in the triple jump.

Texas Southern Relays

On the first weekend of spring break, the Harvard men's and women's throwers and the women's hurdlers flew down to Texas Southern for the first outdoor meet of the season. The Crimson faced off against the top athletes from Houston, Oklahoma State, Rice, and the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Team scores were not tabulated for the meet.

Harvard Women

Colich got her Harvard track career off to a superb start with a first-place finish in the javelin. Her throw of 35.02m edged out Texas Southern's Capricia Majors by a tenth of a meter. Hirshon earned fourth with a throw of 32.38.

Junior Sarah Link was Harvard's top finisher in the discus, with a 37.96m throw that placed her third--about five meters short of the winner. Junior Carrie Haberstroh and captain Kristy Johnson placed seventh and eighth, respectively.

Kornetsky continued the success of her winter campaign in the shot put with a 12.23m throw, good enough for fourth.

In the 400m intermediate hurdles, Taylor lost by three hundredths of a second to freshman Elicia Hepburn of Southwestern Christian. Taylor clocked in at 59.18.

McGraw finished fourth in the event with a time of 1:02.48; Shanklin placed eighth.

Harvard Men

Clever and Kraay were the best of the men's throwers.

Kraay's throw of 15.99m in the shot put placed him third, just a tenth of a meter short of first place. Grimm took fifth with a throw of 14.42m, and senior Chris Cancro finished seventh.

Clever finished third in the javelin with a 57.58m. His throw was seven meters short of the winner. Senior Peter Weed was fifth with a throw of 51.28m. Cancro placed eighth in the event.

In the discus, Shelswell was the top thrower for Harvard with a 44.65m toss--good for fourth place. Kraay's throw of 44.01m placed him fifth. Hamid and Grimm finished eighth and tenth, respectively.