The remaining slots in the top 10 were split between the fourth-place Bears and the first-place Tigers, who claimed a decisive victory with 37 points.

Harvard’s top runner of the day was junior Jakob Lindaas. The Minnesota native ran the 8k course in 25:41 to nab 28th place.

Lindaas noted that while his finish was “a good step” for his own running career, it was a tough day overall.

“We had some inclement conditions. Some guys stepped up and other guys had rough days,” Lindaas said. “We didn’t do as well as we were hoping, but it was a good experience.”

Inclement conditions might be a bit of an understatement—rain turned into snow about halfway through the men’s race, and it continued throughout the women’s race as well.

Kuzmuk pointed out that many runners had to wear hats with a brim, because, “otherwise, you couldn’t see anything with the snow coming down.”

But sophomore Aaron Watanabe was still able to run a strong race, finishing second on his team for the second year straight. Clocking in at 25:47, his time was good for 32nd overall.

Rounding out the Crimson’s top five male finishers were junior Jeremy Gilmour and rookies Will Geiken and Adam Cotton.

The trio all posted times good for finishes in the top half of the pool of runners.

Looking forward, the men and women hope to use the race as a building block rather than a source of disappointment.

“Anything can happen on a given day,” Kuzmuk said. “For us, we want to keep working hard and believing in it.”

—Staff writer Molly E. Kelly can be reached at mkelly@college.harvard.edu.