In the longer distance events, Harvard took home two victories in the 1,500m and the 3,000m steeplechase. Sophomore Laura Maludzinski placed first in the shorter event and junior Rosalinda Castaneda in the longer race, even after falling to the ground with less than a lap to go.

“The whole team and the spectators were watching, and we all lost our breaths for a split second,” Serdakowski said. “Then, we all started cheering very loudly for Rosie to get back up and finish the race—she had about 300 meters to go. She got up and won the race.”

“I talked to her later, and she said how much she did not want to get up because her body was so tired, but when she heard the team screaming for her to go on, she knew that she could do it.”

The biggest performance of the day, however, probably came from Gibson, the team captain. On crutches since Thursday due to a bone bruise, Gibson took home 13 points for Harvard—some of them coming in the pressure packed end of the meet.

“We were aware of the score around the end of the meet and the team came over to the discus to tell me what was going on and how important the points in each of the last four events were,” Gibson said. “This just gave me more resolve that this was a time where I had to step up and perform.”

“I realized that we had a chance to win and there was nothing that was going to keep me from being a part of my last meet against our Ivy League rivals,” she added.

Gibson took home first in the shot put and discus, and then followed with a second place finish in the hammer throw to her teammate, senior Johanna Doyle.

Gibson’s toss in the shot put was over a meter longer than her throw last week, despite the injury that hampered her practice this week.

“It was a good throw but by no means a great one,” Gibson said. “This meet for me was not about distances, but about doing what was necessary to win. Every single point was a difference maker and we knew that from the beginning. No one gave up and everyone fought for every place.”

Now the team turns its attention toward the biggest meets of the year, with Penn Relays next week and Heptagonals on May 8-9. But the spark from this past weekend has given them a new positive outlook on the possibilities for the near future.

“As Maried O’Callaghan put it so nicely after the meet,” Serdakowski said, “now, time to win Heps!”

MEN

For the men, the day was not quite as exciting, but those who did compete still put up key performances.

“You really cannot be disappointed by the outcome of the meet,” co-captain Adam Gelardi said. “Overall, everyone who we had competing performed pretty well.”

Laine performed more than “pretty well,” almost breaking a Harvard record with his triple jump mark of 15.60 meters. The jump fell a mere three inches short of the school record, and reflected Laine’s continual improvement by besting his indoor Heptagonal winning jump by a tenth of a meter. The jump sets him amongst the top 20 jumpers in the nation, according to his teammate Gelardi.