Crimson Limited by Weather over Weekend

The Harvard track and field team looked to capitalize on the practice available from two out-of-town meets this weekend with the NYU Metro Coaches Invitational on Friday and the Dartmouth Relays in Hanover, N.H yesterday. Snow ultimately kept the team from competing in the latter event, but the Crimson offered some impressive results from the New York meet.

“With finals coming up, we wanted to look for some meets that were in close proximity,” Harvard coach Jason Saretsky said. “I wanted to get the middle runners on the track at the Armory.”

Highlighting the Crimson effort, sophomore Hilary May finished first in the women’s 3000-meter run, finishing at 10:05.31. The race marked her first collegiate 3K, as well as her first collegiate win.

“The race was actually a really great way to start the season,” May said. “I talked with the coaches before and we decided it would be a good idea to try a different event to get ready for the mile. Jason told me to go for a negative split...make sure my second half was faster than my first half to make sure I’m working on my strength.”

Another strong sign coming out of Friday’s meet was rookie Darcy Wilson’s 1:23.07 finish in the men’s 600-meter run. The time earned Wilson a 12th-place finish overall and seventh among collegians.

Senior Aishlinn O’Callaghan and freshman Meg Looney finished back-to-back in the women’s 600 at the eighth and ninth spots, respectively. O’Callaghan clocked in 1:37.75, while Looney followed 29 seconds behind at 1:38.04.

“The idea was to get their legs spinning,” Saretsky said. “They’re working out well together and pushing each other and I’m excited to see what happens down the road.”

Rookie Jeanne Mack also competed in the event, finishing at 1:42.53 for 18th.

O’Callaghan, Looney, and Mack also teamed up with senior Jan Ng to place sixth in the women’s 1600 sprint medley with a time of 4:24.59.

Despite just limited action over the weekend—further truncated by the inclement weather—Saretsky remains confident with where the squad stands with a full schedule of in-town meets forthcoming.

“From wire to wire, we executed the game plan just as we wanted to,” Saretsky said.

Harvard has just four meets left before the Indoor Heptagonals, but three of those meets will be at the hometown Gordon Track. The Crimson’s next meet—its only “away” meet—is at the Boston University Track across the river.

“The best part is being able to run so much in front of a home crowd,” Saretsky said. “We have a lot of really exciting meets coming up so we hope a lot of people come out to watch.”

Heading into the final stretch before Heps, Harvard has to be pleased with what it has in its arsenal. According to the International Association of Athletics Federations, senior high jumper Becky Christensen is currently tied with just four other jumpers as No. 1 high jumper in the world. Christensen is the only representative from the United States.

And the Crimson has a solid batch of freshmen to balance out their stalwart roster of veterans. With rookies like Wilson, Looney, Mack, and John Dingus—who won the 500-meter run at the Harvard Open before the break—consequently qualifying for the IC4A Championships, backing up veterans like Christensen, O’Callaghan, and Ng, the Crimson can look forward to a competitive closing stretch to the indoor season.

—Staff writer Dixon McPhillips can be reached at fmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.