AOTW: Freshman Powers Cross-Country Team

With one performance, Lindsey Scherf helped propel the Harvard women’s cross-country team into contention at the upcoming Heptagonal Championships.

The freshman star had performed well in her young career with the Crimson, but by winning the New England Championships Friday and pacing Harvard to a third-place finish, Scherf has proven her impact.

“I didn’t expect to win going in,” Scherf said. “I can’t be anything but happy.”

Just last year, the Crimson finished 16th at the same meet and saw its best performance come from Bev Whelan ’04—who finished in 19th place with a time of 18:09.

On the back of Scherf’s performance, Harvard also lowered its overall team score—the composite of the places of its top five runners—from 459 last year to 156.

With all of these improved statistics, the Crimson, similarly, is nothing but overjoyed about Scherf’s feat.

“Of course Lindsey’s win was fantastic,” captain Danila Musante said. “[The meet] was just very thrilling as a whole.”

Scherf’s winning time of 17:22 was just a second ahead of Andrea Walkonen of Boston University. Her pace for the race was 5:34 per mile, her best of the season.

Scherf’s effort—as evident in her victory Friday—has been a key in her improvement and development this year, and her elder teammates are quick to point it out.

“I’m so happy to have her on the team,” junior Laura Maludzinski said. “She has a great attitude, and is fearless when it comes to taking out a race and pouring 110 percent onto the course. I really think that she can do some damage at Heptagonals.”

As the season continues, Scherf will have a shot at not only finishing well at Heptagonals, but possibly earning All-American honors.

In order to do that, Scherf must finish in the top-25 at NCAA championship—or earn a top 25 finish in this week’s Prenationals if all the teams entered show up for the meet. Scherf and the rest of Harvard head to Indiana this weekend for that chance.

—GABRIEL M. VELEZ