Harvard Picks Up Pair of Fourth-Place Finishes at Dartmouth Relays

Photo of Jack Brady throwing the shot put courtesy of DSPICS.com.

Men's Results

Women's Results

HANOVER, N.H. – The Harvard men’s and women’s track and field team finished fourth in the team scoring at the 41st Dartmouth Relays Sunday. Highlighting the first meet of the new year was impressive performances from Harvard’s underclassmen, a win in the pole vault and two IC4A Championship qualifying marks.

The Harvard women had nine top-15 performances in a meet that featured both collegiate and open competitors. Freshman Sydnie Leroy was fifth overall and second among collegians in the pole vault with a clearance of 3.35 meters. Classmate Shannon Watt placed fifth in the shot put with a heave of 13.33 meters, a full meter further than her performance at the Jay Carisella Track and Field Invitational last month. She also placed 11th in the weight throw with a distance of 12.64 meters. Sophomore Christine Reed placed fifth in the long jump with a leap of 5.19 meters, a collegiate best.

Sophomore Shannon Conway seventh out of 39 runners in the 400 meters with a time of 59.89 Freshman Meghan Ferreira ran a speedy 9.51 seconds in the 60 meter hurdles trials. She clocked in at 9.65 seconds in the semifinals and finished eighth in the final with a time of 9.53 seconds. Classmate Carlyle Davis was 14th out of 40 runners in the mile, clocking in at 5:25.33. In the throws, Brianne Holland-Stergar was sixth overall and third among collegians in the weight throw with a heave of 14.40 meters and placed eighth in the shot put with a toss of 11.76 meters.

On the men’s side, junior Sean Gil led the Crimson with his win in the pole vault. He cleared 4.57 meters to edge his closest competitor by .15 meters. Harvard also saw success in the throws as senior co-captain Jack Brady was fourth in the shot put with a heave of 15.98 meters, earning him a spot at the 2010 IC4A Championships at Boston University in March. Brady also placed sixth in the weight throw with a throw of 16.61 meters. Junior Ablore Ashigbi was fifth in weight with a distance of 16.72 meters

Sophomore Steven Geloneck joined Brady as an IC4A qualifier with his career-best 6.98 second runs in the 60 meter dash. He finished sixth in the event after running 7.00 and 7.02 in the qualifying and semifinal rounds respectively. Senior co-captain Justin Grinstead was third in the 400 meters with a time of 50.50, while Robert Paris placed ninth in a time of 52.11and Jonathan Meminger was 14th in 52.46. . Junior Brian Hill was 11th in the mile, clocking in at 4:28.26

Sophomore Tyler Funk was seventh in the high jump, clearing 1.93 meters, while newcomer Fedor Garin was seventh in the pole vault with a clearance of 4.12 meters

Harvard hosts the Harvard Invitational Jan. 16 in the first of four meets at the Gordon Indoor Track over the next five weeks. The meet gets underway at 9 a.m.