CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – After a year hiatus, Harvard track and field hosts the sixth-ever Battle of the Beantown Saturday, Jan. 18 at the Gordon Indoor Track. The Crimson will face off against Boston College, Northeastern, Army and Brown.
Harvard women have won three-straight in the event, while the men's team also won the title in 2012. Field events will start at 11 a.m. Saturday with the pole vault, shot put and long jump, while runners will begin at 12:30 p.m., starting with the 60m hurdle preliminaries.
The Crimson women, ranked No. 24 in the USTFCCCA preseason national rankings, took second overall at the Dartmouth Relays as three rookies pushed their way into the Harvard record book. Nikki Okwelogu now ranks sixth all-time in program history with a shot put distance of 14.08m (46-02.50). Jade Miller ran the 60m hurdles in 8.80 to tie for seventh all-time, while Raegan Nizdil jumped 1.69m (5-06.50) in the high jump to land 11th all-time.
The Crimson men were paced by junior Jarvis Harris, who set a new meet record in the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.10 to rank first. The men's 4x200 (Harris, Mekdim Ashebo, Jared Kadich and James Heckendorn) also took home gold with a time of 1:29.89.
The event will mark the start of three-straight weekend in Boston, as the Crimson hosts the Harvard Multi Challenge (Jan. 24-25) and the Harvard Invitational (Feb. 1) in the coming weeks.
