For one special day in late February, the men's track team was the best in the Ivy League.

Granted, the Crimson, who hosted the event, finished fourth place at Indoor Heptagonals at the Gordon Track that weekend, well behind meet champion Princeton. But no team stepped up and performed beyond expectation like Harvard did that Sunday.

"I wasn't expecting [this much success], but I knew we were capable of it," said Ed Baker, who captained the men's cross-country team in the fall. "Lots of runners just stepped it up and ran better than they were supposed to, which is what needed to happen."

It was a disqualification of Baker on Saturday that ignited the Crimson rally on Sunday.

Baker ran a NCAA qualifying time of 8:07.04 to place second in the 3000-meter run. But his performance was nullified when meet officials decided that his abrupt lane change down the stretch had impeded the progress of eventual winner Peter Hollatz. Despite the protest of Coach Frank Haggerty, the ruling stood.

On paper, the decision cost the Crimson eight points in the standings, which would have put Harvard in second place for the meet, put the Crimson more than made up for that with the frustration it unleashed the next day.

"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," said Harvard co-captain John Kraay. "I think it motivated us a little bit."

Kraay came up with the performance of his life that Sunday, throwing a personal-best 17.01 meters to place second in the shot put.