The semifinal run concluded a remarking season for Taylor. In the indoor season, she captained Harvard to its first Indoor Heps title since 1990, while winning three individual titles. In the outdoor season, she won two individual Outdoor Heps titles, an individual ECAC title, and earned All-American status with a seventh-place finish at NCAAs. Over the course of the year, Taylor broke over half a dozen school records.

Two of the fallen school records, the 100-meter run and the 4x100-meter relay, had belonged in part to another Trial competitor, Meredith Rainey-Valmon '90. An Atlanta Olympian in 1996, Rainey-Valmon will be attempting to make the team in the 800-meter run this weekend. She still holds the school records in the 200, the 400 and the 800.

International Competition

The Harvard track and field contingent in Sydney will also include some international members of the team.

Darren Dinneen '00, who earned All-American status with an eighth-place finish in the 800-meter run at NCAAs this year, will be attempting to make Ireland's Olympic Team. The Irish Olympic Trials will take place on August 19th.

High jumper Dora Gyorffy '01 has already earned an Olympic berth on the Hungarian national team. A surprise result from the U.S. Olympic Trials meant that Gyorffy will be up against some familiar competition in Sydney. Texas's Erin Aldrich--the only athlete to beat Gyorffy at NCAA Outdoors this past season--managed to twice avert disaster this weekend and sneak onto the U.S. Olympic Team.

In the preliminaries, Aldrich twice missed the qualifying bar of 1.80 meters. On her final try, she grazed the bar with her heel, but the jump--good by the slimmest of margins--moved Aldrich into the final.

The next day, four competitors cleared the 1.90-meter bar on their first try, while Aldrich struggled again, missing twice. But she once again converted her third try under extreme pressure. Aldrich then moved into second-place by clearing a height of 1.93 meters.