Female Rookie of the Year: Gabby Thomas and Ngozi Musa

There are certain core factors that college teams rely on to be successful all season long. Teams rely on coaches for directing the values and goals of the program as well as honing the skills of their players. Captains and senior leaders are meant to rally their comrades so that the central goals can be achieved. Lastly, the youth of the underclassmen provides a breath of fresh air as the new crop of players brings enthusiasm and eagerness to the season.

This outdoor track season, the Harvard women’s outdoor track and field team received the highest national ranking in the program’s history, reaching as high as 10th in the USTFCCCA rankings. In order to achieve as much success as the Crimson has had, the level of talent developed every year must be high to attain such a ranking.

The Harvard women’s track team does not stray from this model. Head coach Jason Saretsky continues to have success with his teams year in and year out in both the indoor and outdoor seasons.

One of the biggest challenges, however, is making sure athletes transitioning into the program can help continue this success.

The freshmen are always the highest priority when it comes to communicating the expectations of the coaching staff. New expectations and a new system are often hard to adjust to, and they take time to understand. Yet, two freshman sprinters in particular have taken the new system and run with it.

Gabby Thomas and Ngozi Musa are two freshman standout athletes for the track team that have bought into the system and are running times that would be impressive for an upperclassman to produce.

The rookie sprinters have made the transition from high school to Division I track competition look nearly effortless, but the transition has involved its fair share of growing pains. But both Thomas and Musa have shown willingness to learn.

“The transition requires a lot more focus and commitment,” Thomas said. “It’s not like high school where you only have to dedicate two hours in the afternoon. From nutrition to getting school work done, it just comes down to training yourself.

Being able to humble themselves to the task of transitioning to the collegiate level has been key to their success.

“Trusting the process is one of the main things that we talk about on our team,” Musa said. “Being willing to fail and buying into the system. It’s easy to just go with what you know, but to be successful, you have to buy into the system.”

The pair began to shine early on in the indoor season as Thomas ran a 7.38 second 60-meter dash while Musa ran the same event in 7.40 seconds, good for first and second in the nation, respectively. In addition to their dominance in the 60-meter dash, Thomas holds the school and Ivy League records in the 200 meter, was an integral part of the 4x400 meter relay team, and competed in both the long jump and high jump.

Their efforts propelled the Crimson toward an Ivy Heptagonal Championship, Harvard’s 4th indoor Ancient Eight title in a row. And from the indoor track in the winter to the outdoor track in the spring, the talented freshmen duo continued their success.

Thomas so far in the spring season has rewritten the Harvard record books in the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, and the 4x400 meter relay. At the Florida Relays, Thomas ran an 11.30 and 22.75 in the 100- and 200-meter dashes, respectively. Musa also has top-10 times in Harvard history in the 100 and 200 meter.

Musa and Thomas’s contributions continued at outdoor Heps, going 1-2 in the 100 meter and teaming up with co-captain Autumne Franklin and junior Jade Miller to take home the 4x100 meter relay.

With continued success in both the indoor and outdoor seasons, Thomas and Musa credit their success to sprints coach Kebba Tolbert and his dedication to placing emphasis on attention to detail.

“Coach Tolbert is one of the best coaches in the country by far,” Thomas said. “He’s always trying to better himself and pushes us to our limits. He’s a really good coach and mentor.”

As much as Coach Tolbert’s teachings of attention to detail has been invaluable to both Thomas and Musa, they also credit their success to one another and the way that they make each other better.

“She’s my supporter and my competitor,” Thomas said. “We push each other to do well, and at the same time we motivate each other… We don’t really worry about the competition driving us apart.”

“I’m really excited for how far we can go with it,” Thomas added. “My coach and I are really excited to see what more we can do.”

Staff writer Stuart Johnson can be reached at stuartjohnson@college.harvard.edu.