As a result, Baker's national-qualifying time of 8:07.04--which would have shattered his previous personal best by eleven seconds--was thrown out.

Baker's disqualification robbed Harvard of eight points. Had his finish been allowed to stand, those points would have propelled the Crimson into second place instead of fourth.

Also, with Baker disqualified, at the end of competition on Saturday, Harvard found itself in the exact same position as last year--ninth out of nine.

Fergusson's fifth-place showing in the high jump and co-captain Chris Clever's toss of 16.55 meters--good for fifth place in the weight throw--was all that prevented Harvard from being shutout going into Sunday.

But on Saturday night, the Crimson held a team meeting, at which they decided to put off worrying about Baker's trevails and focus on doing their individual bests the next day.

As Sunday would show, that strategy worked.

"You can look at [Baker's disqualification] like it's eight points we lost, but we don't have them so we can't worry about it," Kraay said. "I think it motivated us a little bit."

"It got us going, got us fired up."