Woodward also took home first place in the triple jump later in the day.
In two weeks, the runners will face off again, this time looking for the conference title of fastest woman.
“I hope and expect to PR in all of my events in Heptagonals, mainly because I’ll have more time between events to focus and thoroughly get ready for each of my races,” Smith said.
In another field event, the shot put, Harvard once again swept the top three places, despite an injury continuing to keep junior Johanna Doyle out of competition and a slightly out-of-rhythm Gibson—who has not practiced this past week due to illness.
The last two years, the Crimson has been the top of the Ivy League when it comes to the throwing events, winning the shot put the last two years.
But Gibson, Doyle and junior Sandra Venghaus do not have a lock on the top three spots at Heptagonals. Gibson’s winning throw last year was 14.18 meters, and the top two Harvard athletes were just under a meter below that on Saturday.
With two weeks to prepare—and hopefully a full-strength contingent in these events—the Crimson still has a shot of bringing home a couple of top-five places.
In the long-distance events this weekend, Harvard struggled the most, having trouble breaking the top five.
Senior Beverly Whelan and sophomore Laura Maludzinski turned in the best performances of this group with a double of the 800m and mile race. Whelan came within just over a second of winning the mile, placing fourth in the race behind three of Princeton’s runners.
—Staff writer Gabriel M. Velez can be reached at gmvelez@fas.harvard.edu.