Cambridge, Mass. - The Harvard Track and Field teams competed at the Houston Spring Break Invite on Thursday, where three school records fell at the outdoor season opener. Harvard athletes also won six events at the meet. The school records broken were from
Stephanie Ratcliffe in the hammer throw,
Anastasia Retsa in the pole vault and the men's 4x100m relay team of
Collin Fullen,
Lance Ward,
Jaeschel Acheampong and
Jonas Clarke.
Harvard Highlights
• Ratcliffe started the meet with a win and school record in the hammer throw, beating her own previous school record to set the new distance to beat at 67.61m. This is the furthest an NCAA DI athlete has thrown so far this year as she now sits first in the nation. With a 58.16m throw,
Cammy Garabian is third in the nation and took fifth at the Houston meet behind two unattached throwers and a Houston athlete.
• The men's 4x100m relay of Fullen, Ward, Acheampong and Clarke won the meet and posted the fastest time in Harvard history with a 40.19. This mirror's last year's results from this meet, as Harvard has consistently started outdoor season with a men's 4x100m record in Houston.
• Retsa built on her success from the indoor season and vaulted over 4.16m to win the Houston Spring Break invite and break her own outdoor pole vault record. She is also a national leader in her event as her 4.16m is .11m higher than anyone else has cleared in this first weekend of the outdoor season.
•
Estel Valeanu had an excellent opening meet, scoring two wins in the discus and shot put. She leads the nation in the discus throw with a 53.50m throw while winning the meet in the shot put with a 14.44m throw.
•
Izzy Goudros and
Josefina Biernacki were the top two collegiate finishers in the 100m hurdles with times of 13.66 and 13.81, respectively. With a strong tailwind, these marks cannot be entered into a record book as wind legal runs.
• The Crimson swept the hurdles as
Samuel Bennett took the men's 110m hurdle gold with a time of 13.75. Similar to the women's race, the time was not wind legal with a strong tailwind.
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Aaron Shirley won the men's 400m hurdles with a time of 51.62, almost two seconds faster than the second place runner. His time is currently second in the NCAA.
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Lance Ward got his second gold in the men's 200m run, winning with a 20.90 that puts him sixth in the nation.
Up Next
The Crimson will have athletes stay on the road traveling to Raleigh, N.C. for Raleigh Relays on Friday, March 24 and others traveling to Coral Gables, Fl. for the Hurricane Invitational on Saturday, March 25. More athletes will also travel to the UMass Lowell Riverhawk Invite in Lowell, Mass. on Saturday, March 25.
