Coming off of a weekend of competing against nationally ranked opponents, the Harvard track and field teams returned to Ivy League play Saturday when they faced Yale and Princeton in the annual HYP meet in New Haven.
“It’s a historic rivalry so it’s always a good meet,” co-captain Maksim Korolev said.
The women’s team swept the meet, finishing with 69 points—more than 20 points clear of the two other teams. The Crimson won nine of 15 events on the day to clinch the first place finish. The win over Princeton marked the first time the team had beaten the Tigers since 2008-2009.
“For our women to win for the first time in five years against Princeton is a great display of our depth and where we’re at with the program,” coach Jason Saretsky said.
Junior sprinter Danielle Barbian continued her strong 2013-2014 campaign, leading the pack in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.50 seconds. Though her time was just shy of the school-record 7.48 she ran last week, the junior set a new HYP meet record with the victory, besting her own record she set last year.
In the field, freshman Nikki Okwelogu continued to succeed in the shot put. Okwelogu won the event by a large margin—throwing 0.68 meters longer than the runner up, teammate sophomore Adabelle Ekechukwu. The rookie’s distance of 15.02 meters was a personal best and the second best distance in school history.
One of the most contested events of the day came in the women’s 4-x-400 meter relay. The Harvard ‘A’ relay team of freshman Haley Baker, senior Olivia Abbate, freshman Sylvia Deppen, and sophomore Madison Hansen beat out the Princeton ‘A’ relay team by only a hundredth of a second, taking the event with a time of 3:52.96.
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