IC4A, ECAC Championships On Tap For Track and Field

Pictured: Nicole Cochran will compete in the mile run at the 2010 ECAC Championships.
Photo Courtesy: Harvard Athletic Communications

The Particulars
The men’s and women’s track and field teams will be sending representatives to the IC4A and ECAC Championships, held this weekend at the BU Track and Tennis Center and the Reggie Lewis Center, respectively.

The Participants
Harvard will be sending 11 men to the IC4A Championships and 12 women to the ECAC Championships. On the men’s side, Harvard will be well represented in the field and distance events. Jack Brady will be competing in both the shot put and the weight throw, while Ablorde Ashigbi will compete in the shot put and Edward Brucker will join Brady in the weight throw. Sean Gil will represent Harvard in the pole vault and John Dingus will race in the 400 meter dash. The Crimson’s distance medley relay team also qualified for the event and a combination of Dan Chenoweth, Jeremy Gilmour, Brian Hill, Jeffrey Homer, Brian Paison and Darcy Wilson compete in the trials at the IC4A meet.

The women are well represented in a number of different events at the ECAC Championships. Ashtynn Baltimore looks to improve upon her NCAA provisional time in the 60 meter hurdles, while Nicole Cochran will compete in the mile run. Melissa Bellin will compete in the 500 meter trials on Saturday and Meghan Looney will run in the 800 meter trials later that day. Dina Emde is entered in the high jump while Sydnie Leroy will compete in the pole vault, Brianne Holland-Stergar will vie for the title in the weight throw and Olivia Weeks will compete in the triple jump. Harvard’s distance medley relay squad of Bellin, Looney, Thea Lee, Carlyle Davis, Jamie Olson and Claire Richardson will also have a team of four runners compete at the Reggie Lewis Center.

2009 IC4As/ECACs
The men’s team placed 13th out of 48 schools at last year’s IC4A meet. John Dingus finished eighth in the 400 meter dash with a time of 49.43 and Dan Chenoweth finished second in the 3,000 meter run in a time of 8:06.64, less than one second behind the race winner. Nico Weiler took the title in the pole vault with a clearance of 5.00 meters, and Jack Brady finished 19th in the shot put and 22nd in the weight throw, with teammate Neville Irani taking 11th in the weight throw.

The Harvard women finished in seventh place in 2009, totaling 30.50 points over the two days of competition. Jamie Olson started the Crimson point scoring with a sixth-place finish in the mile with a time of 4:52.59 and Hilary May followed with a second-place time of 2:50.46 in the 1,000 meter run. The Crimson 4x400 meter relay team placed sixth with a time of 3:48.19 and the distance medley relay squad took third with a time of 11:49.35. Becky Christensen ’09 took home the event win in the high jump.

Competition History
The IC4As were first contested in 1923 and the Harvard men captured the inaugural team title. Harvard has three IC4A titles in its history, the last one coming in 1927. Harvard’s 13th-place finish in 2009 marked its best finish since a ninth-place result in 2002.

The Crimson women’s indoor track program has competed in the AIAW/ECAC Meet since the 1977-78 academic year. Harvard has never won the AIAW/ECAC meet. The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) Eastern Regional met from 1977-1983, the Crimson began competing in the ECAC Championship in 1984. Their seventh-place finish in 2009 was their best result ever at an ECAC meet.

On The Horizon
The NCAA Indoor Track and Field National Championships take place March 12-13 in Fayetteville, Ark.