Track and Field Records Fall at Terrier Invite

Personal, meet, school, Ivy League—it doesn’t matter what type of record it is.

The Harvard men’s and women’s track and field teams have not been able to stop setting them this year, and that script was no different at the Terrier Invitational at Boston University this weekend. The teams have built upon each week with one record-breaking performance after another.

“One person performing really well in one event can spur another person to exceed their personal best in a completely different event,” captain Erika Veidis said. “I think that all the records falling creates this momentum for the team to keep on performing at a high level.”

Jade Miller’s school record performance in the 500-meter race highlighted the meet, as the sophomore clocked in at 1:12.71 to break her own record en route to a second place, and top collegiate, finish.

In addition to Miller’s feat, the women set various personal records. Danielle Barbian improved in the 200 meters, as the senior set a personal time of 24.38, placing her third in Harvard history and 10th in the Ancient Eight.

Barbian was joined by classmate Ashley Collinsworth and junior Christi Scott, as their 24.50 and 24.70 marks, respectively, were good for fourth and fifth all time in Crimson history.

In the 60-meter dash, Collinsworth came away victorious with a 7.61 finish, while sophomore Jackie Modesett took home second place in the 60 meter hurdles with an 8.74 second race. Modesett was the top collegiate finisher.

The male sprinters performed solidly as well, as freshman Malcolm Johnson continued his fruitful rookie campaign with a 21.62 finish, good for second place in Harvard history. Classmates Matthew Hurst and Andrew Moore broke into the record books as well, with times of 21.74 and 22.11, for fourth and 10^th on the all-time list.

Billy Looney would notch a career best 1:05.83 in the 500-meter race and would lead the way in the 800 with a 1:52.64 finish. Thomas Negron and Daniel Alpert joined Looney in the 800 with personal records of 1:55.15 and 1:55.47, respectively.

Crimson coach Jason Saretsky considers the number of records this season a testament to the strength of the program.

“Harvard has an incredibly rich tradition of success in track and field,” Saretsky said. “We’re literally re-writing the record books, and this meet was very much more of the same.”

The distance runners ended up having a particularly successful meet, as personal records fell across the board.

On the women’s side, senior Whitney Thornburg achieved a personal best in the 5,000-meter race with a time of 16:37.73 and fifth-place finish in the school record books. She would be joined by freshman Courtney Smith, whose 16:51.49 performance placed her ninth all-time.

Thomas Purnell paced the men with the Crimson’s fourth-best all-time finish in the mile as the junior clocked in at 4:02.75. He was joined by teammates Connor Reck and Jonas Aranda, who set personal bests with times of 4:05.60 and 4:06.86, good for ninth and 10th in the record books.

In the longest events of the days, Dan Milechman finished the 3,000-meter race with a time of 8:10.88, more than seven seconds faster than his previous record. Senior Will Geiken finished the 5,000-meter race with a personal best 14:16.99.

Geiken’s time was well earned, as the senior lost his shoe in the race but continued to push to finish in seventh place.

In the 800, senior Gabrielle Scott and Kieran Gallagher set personal bests with 2:11.02 and 2:11.28 finishes respectively. The story of the event, however, was Veidis.

The captain won the race with a 2:05.80 finish, just .04 seconds faster than her competitors. The performance, on the second team All-American’s first outing, was the nation’s second-best time so far this year.

While other college runners will have plenty of opportunities to crack Veidis’s mark, the Sparta, N.J., native believes there is still plenty of room for improvement.

“I’m so much stronger than I was last year,” Veidis said. “I’m pretty excited about the meets ahead, and I hope to drop the time significantly and perform better at Nationals, when I hopefully qualify.”

While the team has re-written the record books so far this year, Saretsky believes that the squad will have to continue to work in order to be successful against conference rivals.

“The team looks good, but so does the whole league,” Saretsky said. “The Ivy League track and field is really at an all-time high level…. It’s mind blowing just how competitive the league is. We’ve got our work cut out from us.”

—Staff writer Julio Fierro can be reached at jfierro01@college.harvard.edu.