Track and Field Has Disappointing Year

So much potential, so much disappointment.

No one can say that the Harvard men's and women's track teams don't have talent. With strong runners and field players on both squads--from junior runners Killian Lonergan and Ian Carswell to junior Mark Clayman (hammer/discus) for the men to senior runners Amanda Williams and Heather MacLennan for the women--on paper, both teams looked stacked.

But reading between the lines, things get clearly depressing for Harvard. The men had absolutely no depth, struggling to an 0-5 record and a last-place Heptagonals finish in the outdoor season after an average (4-3, sixth at Heps) indoor season.

The women fared somewhat better, going 6-3-1 in the two seasons but finishing a disappointing sixth at both Heptagonals.

The Crimson women clearly expected more at each Heps. After all, Harvard was a combined 5-2 against the Ivy League in the indoor and outdoor seasons, so one would expect a placing higher than sixth.

In the indoor Heptagonals, the Crimson was buoyed by MacLennan, who flew 11.60 meters in the long jump and a win by Williams in the 400m. However, a mishandled baton exchange in the 400m relay helped seal Harvard's fate.

When the outdoor season rolled around, it was more of the same. Harvard enjoyed important wins over teams like Dartmouth (54-52.5) and Yale (105-40), the latter meet deciding which runners get to represent Harvard and Yale in this summer's Harvard-Yale/Oxford-Cambridge meet.

But again, at the outdoor Heps, the Crimson again didn't do as well as it hoped. Williams was again the leader, finishing second in the 400m and leading the 4x100 relay team (Williams, freshman Heather Hanson, freshman Heather Beasly and MacLennan) to third place. But Harvard scored in few other events.

All of that was a heck of a lot better than the men's season, however. That team had two people qualify for Nationals in each season--Carswell and Lonergan in the winter and Carswell and senior Darin Shearer in the spring.

With runners like those, Harvard had a head start on its competition. The problem was, once the injury bug hit in the spring, there was little else to back them up.

Sure, there were people like Clayman, junior pole-vaulter Steve Brannon, senior high-jumper Terry Mann and senior javelin-thrower Eugene Chan. However, Harvard often found itself short of people, forcing team members to overload on events they weren't specialized at.

Brannon, for instance, was called upon to run the triple jump at the outdoor meet with Yale, an effort which may have caused his second-place finish in the pole vault.

By the time the outdoor Heps rolled around, the season was over for everyone except those hoping for NCAA bids.

At the outdoor Nationals, held May 30-31 at the University of Oregon, Carswell scored two points for Harvard in the team standings with a seventh-place finish in the 5,000m, while Shearer didn't make it out of his preliminary heat in the 1,500m. In the indoor Nationals, Lonergan placed 11th in the 5,000m, while Carswell was forced to quit.

Harvard Sports Stats 1995-96

Men's Track

Record: 4-3 (winter), 0-5 (spring)

Heps Finish: 5th (winter), 9th (spring)

Head Coach: Frank Haggerty

Captains: Matt Bundle '96, Amar Kuchinad '96

Other Key Players: Ian Carswell '97, Darin Shearer '96

Harvard Sports Stats 1995-96

Women's Track

Record: 4-2-1 (winter), 2-1 (spring)

Heps Finish: 6th (winter), 6th (spring)

Head Coach: Frank Haggerty

Captains: Amanda Williams '96, Ailey Penningroth '97

Other Key Players: Margaret Schotte '99, Heather MacLennan '96