Nevertheless, once again, it came head-to-head with rival Yale in a dual meet that saw the highlight of the season for the women’s team.
While the men fell 97.5-61.5, the women squeaked out an upset victory over a larger Bulldog squad with key performances from every team member.
The Crimson women pulled off a stunning upset as they toppled Yale 82-80. Harvard’s field event athletes and runners—including the hurdlers who took five of the top six spots in their races—played a pivotal role in the victory.
“As a result of yesterday, we proved two things,” sophomore Mary Serdakowski said the day after the meet. “We proved to ourselves that we have the potential to beat very competitive teams when we give it our all. Also, we proved to the rest of the conference that we are not a joke.”
After competing in the New Hampshire and Princeton Invitationals, it was time for the last final push with the Outdoor Heptagonals—the biggest meet of the year—on May 8-9.
After a strong indoor performance against the other Ivy League teams, the result for the men outdoor was disappointing, if only because the team could not muster enough runners to improve upon its performance in the winter.
“All in all, in was a tough weekend,” senior James Albertine said. “I know everyone’s disappointed about the way both teams ended up overall; however, there were quite a few personal bests and good performances to write home about.”
Aside from the Laine-Adjah triple jump duo that swept again, the Crimson earned most of the rest of its points in only one other event—the shot put.
Ware registered a solid fourth-place finish on a throw of 15.55 meters outdoors. Junior Kristoffer Hinson followed up Ware with his own point-scoring toss of 15.40—good enough for fifth.
On the women’s side, Harvard managed to rack up a much larger number of points than in the winter, but still finished eighth overall.
Sophomore Laura Maludzinski provided the most excitement on the day by winning the 1,500 meter in the smallest margin recorded all year for a Harvard victory—.01 second.
“It was what they call a ‘kicker’s race’ and she ran it perfectly,” co-captain Beverly Whelan said. “Laura and I were boxed with 300 meters to go, and she made a gutsy move and passed the field in the third lane.”
Senior Johanna Doyle—who had been consistently at the top of the Ivy League, if not the Northeast in general—took home second in the hammer toss.
A week later, Harvard showed how despite its eighth-place finish at Heptagonals, it had key individual strengths. Competing in the IC4As, Adjah finished just 0.3 meter behind the winner of the triple jump, placing third for the Crimson.
The men’s team finished 22nd out of 50 teams, which was fifth-best in the Ivy League, just behind Princeton, Penn and Yale.
With this strong finish to the season, a number of Harvard athletes qualified for the NCAA Regionals. With the majority of those being underclassmen, the team cannot help starting to look forward to the future.
—Staff writer Gabriel M. Velez can be reached at gmvelez@fas.harvard.edu.