June 8, 2009

Christensen and Weiler Head to NCAA Track and Field Championships

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The Story Line

Becky Christensen and Nico Weiler will represent Harvard at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships June 10-12 in Fayetteville, Ark.

The NCAA

The national meet will be held at the John McDonnell Field on the campus of the University of Arkansas. It will the 88th running of the men's championships and the 28th edition for the women.

Ivy Green at the NCAAs

Becky Christensen and Nico Weiler are among 23 Ivy League athletes that will compete at the NCAA Championships this week.

The Field

Becky Christensen has the fifth best high jump in the nation and is seeded sixth in the nation. Nico Weiler has the eighth best vault in the nation and seeded 12th in the event.

Crimson Notables

Becky Christensen is making her fourth appearance at the outdoor national championships and seventh NCAA appearance all together. She is a three-time All-American, having earned the distinction twice indoors and once during the outdoor season thus far. Nico Weiler is the first Harvard men's NCAA qualifier since Samyr Laine in 2005. Laine is also the last Crimson male to earn All-America honors. Weiler is the first Harvard pole vaulter to compete at the outdoor championships. George Stiles earned All-America honors at the indoor championships in 1979.

Crimson Firsts

Nico Weiler was the first Harvard track and field athlete to win an event at the NCAA East Regional meet.  Fifteen Ivy Leaguers have been crowned champions at the regional meet over the last seven years.

Taking It to New Heights

Weiler's mark of 5.36 meters established a new school record and is the highest clearance by an Ivy Leaguer since 1993, when both Mamadou Johnson of Penn and Kevin McGuire of Princeton went higher.

Last Time Out

Nico Weiler won the pole vault and Becky Christensen took third in the high jump at the NCAA East Regional to close out the month of May. Weiler jumped a personal best 5.36 meters, while Christensen cleared 1.81 meters.

Sophomore Daniel Chenoweth finished sixth in the 5,000 meter run in a time of 14:20.70. He missed finishing in the top-five and an automatic bid to the NCAAs by less than two seconds. Six other Crimson student-athletes competed over the weekend, equaling Harvard's most qualifiers in the seven-year history of the event.

 

All-Ivy League Honorees

Harvard's six winners and runners-up earned All-Ivy League honors based on their performances at the Heptagonal Championships. Senior All-American Becky Christensen was named first-team All-Ivy League for her win in the high jump. It's her eighth All-Ivy honor and sixth-team first-team selection. Christensen is only the third Ivy Leaguer to win four outdoor high jump titles. She was joined by senior Shannon Flahive, junior Justin Grinstead, sophomores Jessica Fronk and Claire Richardson and freshman Nico Weiler on the first-team. Sophomore Daniel Chenoweth and Richardson also received second-team honors.

Rewriting the Record Books

Nico Weiler broke his own pole vault record at the NCAA East Regional last month. He cleared 5.36 meters to win the event. Weiler is no stranger to breaking records. He broke the Central California state record, the State of Baden-Wuettemberg (Germany) record for ages 14-17 and the U-18 World Championship record over the last two years.

Weiler is not the only freshman stamping his name in the record books. Nicholas Farnsworth added his name to the javelin all-time list. He stands fifth after his throw of 61.43 meters at the Victor Lopez Classic.

At the Harvard-Yale meet, Jack Brady earned a spot on the all-time discus list with the 10th best throw. His mark of 50.17 meters was good for third at the Harvard-Yale dual meet and also qualified him for the IC4A Championships. Junior Chas Gillespie moved into fourth on the all-time top-10 performance list with his 14:01.99 in the 5,000 meters at the Penn Relays.

Most recently, Eric Clayman's personal best of 59.27 meters qualified for regionals and moved him into eighth on the Harvard top-10 performance list.

On the women's side, Brittan Smith improved on her No. 2 Harvard mark in the long jump with a personal best 6.02 meters, which she jumped at regionals earlier this month. Rookie Nicole Cochran ran the second fastest time in the Crimson annuals in the 3,000 meter steeplechase, clocking in at 11:04.39. Classmate Shannon Conway ran the 10th fastest time in the 400, clocking in at 56.51. Claire Richardson has the seventh best time in the 5,000 meters (16:43.99) and the seventh best (4:25.82) in the 1,500 meters. Senior Shannon Flahive leaped a personal best in the long jump (5.96 meters) to move into third all time, while classmate Evan Faverman threw the fifth best mark in the javelin (40.81 meters), freshman Lauren Barber had the ninth best throw in the shot put (13.02 meters), classmate Nicole Sliva posted the seventh best mark in the heptathlon (4,368 points) and Christine Reed recorded the ninth best mark in the same event (4,231).

Cochran, Conway, Jamie Olson and Claire Richardson broke the school record in the distance medley relay, clocking in at 11:40.24.

Away from Home

After hosting six meets at home and competing in just one meet outside of Boston during the indoor season, the Crimson competed on campus just once during the outdoor campaign. Harvard has eight states on the docket this season: Arkansas, Connecticut, Iowa, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Texas.