“Our one big goal for this year is to win the Heps Championship at the end of October,” said Barrett, who also discussed how his personal success has worked into this team dynamic. “Success as a freshman is all relative. It is foolhardy as a freshman to try to compare yourself to some of these real top runners.”
Next week the Crimson will take on powerhouses such as Stanford, Arkansas and Colorado as they run in the NCAA Pre-nationals. But it will also serve as the last time before Heptagonals to see where Harvard stands.
“Dartmouth, Princeton, and Yale,” pondered Bienvenu. “It’s a good chance to measure ourselves against some of the best teams in the nation, both individually and as a team.”
Women
Senior Beverly Whelan led the Harvard women’s cross country team by taking an impressive ninth at the New England Cross Country Championships on Friday.
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As with the men’s team, the Harvard women rested some of the varsity runners in preparation for next week. Nevertheless, the team ran well and placed 16th in one of the larger fields of the year, competing against 40 other colleges.
“We were happy with our performance on Friday considering the huge field we were competing against,” senior Katherine Katz (19:26) said. “For us, New England’s provides more of a chance to improve individually, as we didn’t race our entire team.”
Taking home first place, though, was Ivy League rival Brown, whose top runner Anya Davidson, actually placed just behind Whalen (18:09) at 10th.
Aside from placing in the top 10, Whalen also impressed with a time that averaged 5:50 a mile, and was a mere 25 seconds from the first-place finisher, Aly Venti of Amherst.
For the Crimson, junior Lindsey Yourman was the only other runner in the top 100, placing 80th in a time of 19:13.
For the seniors on the team, this race was a little emotional as well, as it will be the last time they will race that distance for Harvard on their home course.
“It was the last opportunity for us to race a [five-kilometer race] on our home course this season and attempt to get some [personal records],” Katz said.
Their last race at Franklin Park will be on November 15th in the NCAA Regionals where top runners Whelan, captain Mairead O’Callaghan and sophomore Laura Maludzinski, both of whom sat out this weekend’s race, will look to qualify for Nationals.