M. Track Takes 22nd of 45 Teams at IC4A Championships

This weekend, select members who qualified from both the men and women’s teams took part in the IC4A and ECAC championships, respectively. The men put up a strong showing on the final day to propel themselves into 22nd place—with 14 points—in a field of 54 teams. The women, who were not able to post a point in Sunday’s events, finished in 45th place with two points. In the overall team competition, Army won the men’s side with 50 points, while Pittsburgh’s 92.20 points were good enough to take home the championship in the women’s field.

For the women, sophomore Laura Maludzinski—who just this past week was named an all-Ivy runner as well as co-captain of the Harvard track team with junior Rosalinda Castaneda for next year—showed why she has been one of Harvard’s strongest runners all year. In the 800m race, Maludzinski finished just 12 tenths of a second shy of making the final heat, ending up one place out in ninth. The Crimson’s only other runner Castaneda also finished just outside scoring range in her single event of the weekend, the 3000m steeplechase. Her time of 10:47.22 was just over half a minute and 11 spots behind the winner, Jennifer Donovan of Boston College.

In the field events, senior Johanna Doyle—the Crimson’s other female all-Ivy honoree—grabbed the Crimson’s first points with her finish in the hammer throw. Finishing as the best Ivy leaguer in the event, Doyle placed seventh with a toss of 180’2”.

For the Harvard men all-Ivy sophomores Samyr Laine and Lawrence Adjah were the impact athletes once again, grabbing 11 points by themselves in the triple jump. Adjah—who finished second behind Laine last weekend at Heptagonals—made his mark with a jump of 15.40 meters that landed him in third place. Laine’s mark of 15.26 meters put him right behind Adjah in fourth, and just over half a meter behind the winner, Jeff Weaver of Army.

Junior Travis Hughes also took place in the event, but finished back in 12th, four spots away from scoring for the Crimson.

Harvard earned its other three point sin the field events as well, coming from sophomore Christopher Ware’s sixth place finish in the shot put. His first toss of 16.46 meters held him in scoring place, even though he was called for fouling on every other attempt afterwards.

The one remaining meet on the schedule is NCAA regionals—and possibly beyond—where Laine and Maludzinski will be representing both the Ivy League and Harvard for winning the Heptagonal crown in their events.

—Staff writer Gabriel M. Velez can be reached at gmvelez@fas.harvard.edu.