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The Harvard track and field team has been to more prestigious meets this year than the Penn Relays, but none is larger in size or older in tenure than the three-day affair that took place last week. With nine Crimson athletes making the trip to the City of Brotherly Love, and several more taking to North Easton, Mass., for the Skyhawk Invitational, the team made the most of its last week of preparation before the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships.

“Penn Relays is a great opportunity to compete at a historic track meet and put down some fast times before Heps,” said junior distance runner Fiona Davis. “Thursday at Penn Relays is Distance Night where the steeple chase, 5k, and 10k are run under the lights, ending just before midnight, and it is the perfect time to run a fast 10k to get onto the Heps roster. Sophomore Collin Price had a breakthrough race running his first 10k in 30:08, earning him a spot on the Heps roster and putting him in a great position to score.”

SKYHAWK INVITATIONAL

Traveling less than an hour away, several student athletes stayed within state lines to compete in the Skyhawk Invitational hosted by Stonehill College. Among them, three left the meet with gold medals and another with a bronze.

Leading off for the group was the lone field competitor, sophomore Andrew Bolze in the long jump competition. After the first round, Bolze was in second with a jump of 6.83 meters to junior Josh Hubbell of Stonehill at 6.86. Both fouled the next jump, and Bolze the one after that. Still down heading into the fourth round of jumps, the Harvard sophomore landed a clean attempt but came up short to Hubbell.

At this point, another junior from Stonehill, Mark Hamalian, had entered contention with a 6.82-meter jump, only 0.1 behind Bolze. In his fifth round jump, however, the sophomore was explosive, landing a personal-record jump of 6.96 meters and securing the gold medal for the Crimson.

Following that performance were strong outings by two of the hurdling teams. In the 110-meter hurdles, sophomore Mitch Valko earned another gold for Harvard. In Valko’s inaugural race in the 110’s for the spring outdoor season, the sophomore outpaced his competitors with a time of 15.01 seconds.

Running the longer variant, the 400-meter hurdles, were freshman Will Rienas and junior Randall Raymond. The duo took home first and third, respectively. Rienas crossed the finish line in 56.20 seconds and Raymond was less than a second behind at 56.66 seconds. Between the classmates was Atiba McLaren, a freshman from Stonehill,

Ultimately, with not as many racers as the opposing teams, the Crimson finished eighth as a squad in the team rankings.

PENN RELAYS

Competing in the same meet as children, high school students, and Olympic athletes, although in different divisions, the Harvard track and field team took the Franklin Field in Philadelphia for the 123rd rendition of the historic Penn Relays.

Taking fifth place in last week’s Cardinal Classic at Stanford, junior pole vaulter Marlena Sabatino was more than prepared for her field of competitors. On her first jump of the day, Sabatino exceeded the 3.80-meter bar and maintained the lead for the rest of the jumps. Leaving the meet with a gold, the junior’s closest Ancient Eight competitor was Nicole Macco of Penn, who placed third. In fact, Penn was the only other Ivy League school that participated in the pole vault competition.

The 10,000 meter runners had a good day as well, particularly the men. Leading the group was sophomore Collin Price in his first ever time to run the race. The sophomore claimed fifth of the pool with a time of 30:08.91.

“I've been asking my coach to put me in a 10k for a while and have been primarily focusing on running that event,” Price said. “Most of my training has been geared towards a longer race. I was definitely very excited to run in the low thirties, especially since it was my first time running the 10k.”

Finishing behind Price was teammate and junior Tyler Spear. Clocking in at 32:13.49, Spear finished the race in 22nd. On the women’s side of the event, Davis was the lone racer and finished in 16th place with a time of 37:09.96 seconds.

The meet represented the final chance to practice for the two teams as they head into arguably the most important meet of the season, the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships. The Heps will pit all Ivy League teams against each other at Yale next weekend as they compete for an opportunity to extend their seasons.

“I'm feeling pretty good about where that puts me for Heps, as I believe that time puts me at fifth in the Ivy League this season,” Price said. “The goal will definitely to be to score some points for the team."

—Staff writer Cade Palmer can be reached at cade.palmer@thecrimson.com.