Track and Field Names Captains, Team Award Winners

(Gil Talbot)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Harvard track and field team held its annual awards banquet Tuesday night where it named team award winners for the 2009-10 season and captains for the 2010-11 season. In all, 21 team awards were presented at the banquet, held in the Harvard Hall of History.  

Senior Chas Gillespie started the evening, receiving the Jannegren “Overcoming Physical Adversity” Award and junior Daniel Chenoweth followed with the Watters Mile Award. Senior Justin Grinstead, junior Brian Hill, sophomore John Dingus and freshman Jeffrey Homer received the Hennessy Mile Relay Award and the women’s distance medley relay team, comprised of juniors Thea Lee and Claire Richardson and freshmen Melissa Bellin and Carlyle Davis, received the Bingham Relay Award. Sophomores Meg Looney and Nicole Sliva received the “Pappy” Hunt Improvement Award, Hill and sophomores Brian Paison and Tyler Funk received the Helmus Improvement Award and sophomore Christine Reed was given the Women’s Unsung Hero Award.

Dingus earned the Westmore Wilcox 440 Award, given to the strongest 400 meter runner, and freshman Blaine Bolus earned the Ohiri Triple Jump Award. The Gourdin Broad Jump Award went to freshman Ashtynn Baltimore, the Little Shot Put Award went to freshmen Edward Brucker and Shannon Watt and senior Jack Brady earned the Carver Hammer and Weight Award, the Ed Stowell Award and the McCurdy Beyond the Call of Duty Award. Grinstead also picked up the Rand Hurdle Award and the Nelson Unsung Hero Award, while junior Sean Gil was awarded the Robert W. Harwood Pole Vault Award. The McLaughlin Award, presented to the freshmen that best embody the qualities of fellowship and sportsmanship, went to Bellin and Homer and Lee received the Women’s Beyond the Call of Duty Award. Baltimore earned the Women’s Most Valuable Performer Award and Richardson wrapped up the evening with the Women’s Most Outstanding Performer Award.

The program elected four captains, two men and two women, to lead the team in 2010-11. Brian Hill and Ablorde Ashigbi will serve as captains of the men’s team, while Thea Lee and Nicole Sliva will lead the women’s squad.