NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- The excitement and competition on Saturday was unmatched at the annual Harvard-Yale dual meet at the Cuyler Athletic Complex. This historic track and field meet allows members from both schools to try new events and prepare for the Ivy Heps Championship that is four weeks away.
For this meet, first-place finishes earned five points towards the team score, second place earned three points and third place earned one point. For relays, only the first place team scored five points. The team score was extremely close by the end of the meet, and the deciding points came down to the last few events. The Bulldogs put up a good fight, but placed second to Harvard 75-70.
The day started off strong with a Yale win over Harvard in the 4x100m relay. Seniors
Ava Thomas,
Libby McMahon,
Aliya Boshnak and
Sophie Isom set a school record of 45.92 while scoring five points for the team. The previous record of 46.33 was set in 2006 by
Catherine Bader '08,
Joslyn Woodard '06,
Olakitan Awolesi '08 and
Katrina Castille '07.
Following the 4x100m relay, sophomore
Sophia Karperos made her debut in the 3000m steeplechase. She placed third overall and cleared every barrier smoothly. The 1500m race featured five Yale runners and five Harvard runners. Two Yalies placed in the top three, scoring six points towards the team score. Senior star
Kayley DeLay won the race with a time of 4:23.65. She earned herself the sixth place spot on Yale's all-time list. Senior
Kosana Weir placed third, well ahead of Harvard's Maya Rayle in fourth.
Senior
Libby McMahon unsurprisingly won the 400m race with a speedy 54.70. Sophomore
Ella Mainwaring Foster took third in the event, and she doubled back later to also take third in the 200m. Senior
Ava Thomas took third in the 100m with a time of 12.17. In the final event on the track, the Bulldogs' 4x400m relay team of junior
Samantha Friborg, Mainwaring Foster, Boshnak and Isom secured a win over Harvard's "A" team in 3:48.30. In a meet that had an emphasis on scoring team points, the sprinters contributed their fair share to the overall score.
In the 800m, Friborg secured second place with a time of 2:09.44. Sophomore
Iris Bergman finished shortly behind her to earn fifth place. In the 5k, sophomore
Kathryn Rodrigues earned her first collegiate win with a time of 17:32.93. This is her personal best by 15.3 seconds.
The Bulldogs in the field events had a solid day of work and scored many points for the team. In the long jump, first year
Dominique Romain and sophomore
Sydney Kunkler took second and third place, respectively. In the triple jump, sophomore
Bharathi Subbiah won with a jump of 11.34m (2.7 wind). Sophomore
Sophie Wright and junior
Karen Kirunda placed second and third in the event as well, so Yale claimed all points in the triple jump. In the high jump, sophomore
Abrianna Barrett emerged victorious with a jump of 1.67m. Sophomore
Eileen Yang had another great day and won the pole vault.
In the throwing events, first year
Violette Perry had quite the day. Perry placed second in both the discus throw and the javelin throw, earning personal records in both events. Also in the discus throw, senior captain
Emma Vasen placed third and sophomore
Maria Leskovec placed fourth. Vasen also competed in the hammer throw, where she produced a mark that was just two meters away from her personal best of 55.22m. Sophomore
Bella Bergloff placed fourth in the hammer throw with a personal record of 42.92m.
The predicted rain storm held out for most of the meet, and it ended up being a beautiful day for competition amongst rivals. The opportunity to compete at such a historic meet is one of many reasons why Yale is so special. The annual dual meet provides two peer institutions with a great opportunity to sharpen up before more intense competition later in the season. For the next competitions in two weeks, the Bulldogs will be traveling to Tuscaloosa, Ala. (Alabama's Crimson Tide Invitational) and Charlottesville, Va. (the Virginia Challenge). There will also be a group that stays to compete in New Haven at the Mark Young Invitational.
