Crimson Sets Sights On Heps

It’s simple. Nothing is bigger for the Harvard track and field team than the Heptagonal Championships.

“It’s what we look for all year,” men’s co-captain Jack Brady said. “This is our conference championship.”

“Heps is really exciting,” junior Claire Richardson said. “It’s where you get really good competition and can get good performances out of each other.”

This upcoming weekend, both the men’s and women’s teams hope to garner solid performances as they travel to Princeton’s Weaver Stadium to compete against the seven other schools in the Ivy League.

“Heps is definitely a big deal,” coach Jason Saretsky said. “For a good number of student athletes, it’s the culmination of a lot of hard work. It’s the highlight of the season.”

This season’s Heps should be especially exciting, as the margin between the top four teams in both the men’s and women’s indoor Heptagonal Championships in February was tight. At that event, the Crimson men and women each placed fourth, fighting against Dartmouth and Columbia for the last spot in the top half.

“Our men and women’s teams are in a good spot,” Saretsky said. “We had a strong indoor Heps Championships...[This weekend] it’s going to be a tough battle with a lot of teams vying to finish in the top half.”

Coming off of meets against Brown, Yale, and the top racers at the 116th Penn Relays, Harvard seems prepped and ready to compete against the best of the Ancient Eight, particularly Cornell and Princeton who, combined, have won the last 12 men’s outdoor Heps and the last eight women’s.

For the Crimson men, who finished in sixth-place last spring—three points behind fifth place Dartmouth—this year presents a challenge to rank in the top-four.

“We have high hopes,” Brady said. “We had a great Heps indoor championship earlier this year. We only finished a couple of points out of third place, but we know it’ll be difficult to replicate that performance.”

With top showings from Brady and fellow thrower freshman Edward Brucker last weekend at the Penn Relays, as well as strong performances from co-captain Justin Grinstead, Harvard knows it can compete.

“We believe we have the talent to be a top-four team in the Ivy League,” Brady continued. “That’s our goal, we need to start establishing ourselves as a threat to the top guys. Hopefully, that’s what we’ll do this weekend.”

The women’s team also hopes to finish in the top half of the competition, especially after its distance medley grabbed a first-place finish in Pennsylvania last week.

“I think if we have a good weekend, we could finish top-three,” said Richardson, a member of the four-person medley group. “Mainly, we’re going to go out there and have some good performances. We have a good chance of doing pretty well if everyone steps up to the plate.”

The women will look to grab points from the field squad and the multi-teams, which have consistently improved each meet.

“I really feel the multis [sophomores Christine Reed and Nicole Sliva] have really stepped up their game,” Richardson said. “Those are the first people I think of. They work out all the time, they’re looking great, so I’m looking forward to them to compete.”

Competition will also be fierce for the Crimson ladies as Cornell has won seven of the past eight Hep Championships.

“Our team is going through a process of improvement—each year getting better and better,” Richardson continued. “We’ve used this season to make us better as a team...Hopefully we can use that at Heps.”

Regardless of their finishes, both the men and women’s teams believe that the season has already been a success.

“Overall, it’s been a really strong year for us,” Saretsky repeated. “We’ve done some things that we’ve never been able to do in the program’s history...We’re working hard to getting this program to a place where year in and out we can compete for the championships. We’re not there yet.”

If Harvard gets its way, that point will come sooner rather than later. This weekend though, as Richardson emphasized, total focus will be on one thing.

“All that matters is getting points.”

—Staff writer Alex Sopko can be reached at sopko@fas.harvard.edu.