W. Track Finishes Fourth In Heptagonals

Winning isn't everything, the old saying goes.

And finishing fourth in the Heptagonal Indoor Track and Field Championships this past weekend was a major accomplishment for the Harvard women's track team.

The Crimson runners, jumpers and throwers surprised many people, including themselves, by finishing so high even though the squad competed with fewer members than most of the other schools.

In fact, Harvard's 84 points was a mere one point away from a third-place tie with Pennsylvania and only 10 points (one victory) behind Brown. Cornell won the event with a whopping 128 points.

"We ran beyond our expectations," senior co-captain Jennifer Kearney said. "We were hurt as a team a little bit by depth, but we had great individual performances."

Such performances included those of junior Karen Goetze. Goetze took first place in the 800 with a time of 2:13.50, a finish that qualified her for the ECAC meet that will be held this weekend in Syracuse, N.Y.

Goetze wasn't finished, however. Tired or not, she had to come right back two races later and compete in the finals of the 400, which took second place in with a time of 58.11 seconds.

Not that second place was bad for the Crimson. Goetze was beaten by her teammate--junior Amanda Williams.

Williams, who has improved her times greatly over the past year, came in at 57.58 seconds.

"Amanda has really progressed the whole season--she really deserves it," Kearney said. "Karen had a great day and really came through for us."

She came through indeed.

As if Goetze's previous two finishes weren't enough, she also ran the final leg of the 4x800 relay, leading the Crimson to an impressive victory at 9:10.96. Goetze started her 800 even with her closest competitors, but she pulled out in front and led Harvard to the big victory.

Sophomore Jenny Martin, freshman Margaret Angel and Kearney ran the first three legs and will join Goetze in Syracuse.

Junior Sarah Barber picked up yet another first-place finish for Harvard, winning the high jump event. Barber edged out three other opponents by the narrowest of margins, taking the event with a height of 5-6. Barber's jumps earned her an invitation to the ECAC's as well.

Also going to the ECAC's is the Crimson's 4x400 relay team, which finished second in a time of 3:55.55. Co-captain Shireen Boulos, freshmen Athena Jones and Allison Goldkamp, and Williams garnered the eight points awarded for a second-place finish. Brown's team came in first with a time of 3:54.63.

"We competed very well as team," Boulos said. "[Overall] coming in fourth doesn't give you the entire picture."

The Crimson finished as high as it did despite its lack of depth and injuries to key members, such as sophomore decathlete Ailey Penningroth.

The key to Harvard's high finish at Helps was its training. The team had preparing itself for this meet since back in November (September for those who ran cross country).

The Crimson placed first in the Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet earlier this month and improved as the winter season went along. Harvard's performance this past weekend was just the culmination of a very successful campaign for the women.

"We came home very satisfied," Kearney said. "It would have been nice to score a little higher, but no matter where we turned out we couldn't have been disappointed."

So now the Crimson can relax, right? After all, four months of grueling training tires one out.

Uh, no--the spring outdoor season is just around the corner.

"Our finish got the team very excited," Kearney said. "People are excited to start training again. They're hungry."

And with the positive results they've been coming up with, can anyone blame them for their appetite?