AUSTIN, Texas – After three days of competition at the Victor Lopez Classic, the Harvard track and field team won six events, amassed five top-25 NCAA East Regional qualifiers, 18 ECAC/IC4A standards and 10 top-10 marks in program history. The Crimson men won the meet hosted by Rice University with 92 points, while the women finished third with 78 points.
Two of Harvard's hurdlers took shots at breaking long-standing school records. Highlighting the men's side was sophomore Jarvis Harris in the 110-meter hurdles. The second-year hurdler scorched the track to win the event in a 0.31-second personal record of 14.29. The run was just five-hundredths of a second shy of matching Aggrey S. Awori's '65 record of 14.24 set at Brown on May 4, 1963 and the fastest since Stephen C. Ezeji-Okoye '85 ran 14.37 in 1983.
In the women's 400-meter hurdles, freshman Autume Franklin blazed around the track in 59.49. The time awarded the Owings Mills, Md., native second place by just 0.43 seconds. The mark is only the second sub-60 second time in program history and the fastest since Brenda N. Taylor '01 set the record of 55.46 as a senior. Franklin also posted the fifth best 100-meter hurdle time in school history when she took third at 14.20.
In the 1,500-meter run, Sammy Silva paced the field in the 1,500-meter run to win the race in 4:28.07. The senior's time was sixth best in program history, while teammate Kelly Morgan, who took second in 4:31.57, had the 11th fastest mark by any Crimson student-athlete.
Junior Hannah Mayer's victory in the javelin highlighted a strong showing in the field by the Harvard women. Mayer won the event with a toss of 43.28m (142' 0"). Freshman Martina Salander claimed third in the shot put on a throw of 14.19m (46' 6.75"), fourth furthest in school history and just the fifth to go longer than 14 meters. Sophomore Taylor Dupont registered the sixth best mark by a Crimson in the hammer throw when she let loose the orb for 49.71m (163'1").
The men relied on three wins in the field to spur them to victory. Sophomore Igor Liokumovich captured the discus title with a heave of 51.09m (167'7") and delivered a third place finish in the shot put at 16.68m (54'8"). Junior Dustin Brode won the shot at 17.72m (58'2") and was fifth in the discus (47.82m). Ed Brucker added to the Crimson's dominance in the discus with a third place finish at 49.32m (161'10'), one of three Crimson IC4A marks in the event.
The final win for Harvard came from senior Nico Weiler, who cleared 5.25m (17'3") to take the pole vault competition. Weiler holds the program record of 5.50 meters (18'0.5").
Making their way into the Crimson record books were junior sprinter Connor McCarthy and Malcolm Rodriguez. In the pit, Rodriguez launched his way to 15.03m (49'4") in the triple jump to record the ninth best distance in program history and on the straightaway Connor McCarthy was clocked in the 100 at 10.88, the 12th best time for the Crimson.
The final team standings saw the men edge Sam Houston State by one point, 92-91, for the team victory. Houston (73.5), Rice (71.5) and Notre Dame (69) completed the top five in the team standings.
Notre Dame won the women's side with 121 points. Rice (113.5), Harvard (78), Western Michigan (62) and Houston (52) rounded out the top five.
For complete results of the Victor Lopez Classic, please click here.
The Crimson returns to action with the Texas Relays from March 28-30.
