Harvard Cross-Country Teams Show Improvement at NCAA Pre-Nationals

Every year, the Harvard cross-country teams try to use the NCAA Pre-National meet as a warm up for the more important Heptagonals and National Championships.

This year, the Crimson traveled to Indiana State and did more than just warm up for the upcoming weeks.

Harvard showed why it feels that it is continuously improving as both teams had drastic gains both individually and collectively over previous years. Saturday’s Pre-Nationals were raced in two different sections, with the Crimson men racing in the “blue” 8k race and the women in the “white” section of their 6k race.

The Harvard men placed 26th out of 37 teams and were led by captain Reed Bienvenu’s team-best 60th-place finish in a time of 24:50.9. Following on his heels, senior Alasdair Mclean-Foreman placed 103rd—coming through the line at 25:15.3. Last year, Mclean-Foreman had the Crimson’s best finish by placing 169th, and the team placed 32nd overall.

Harvard’s heat of the 8k race was won by New Mexico’s Matt Gonzales, although Colorado took home the team title.

The Harvard women finished a little better than the men by taking 23rd in their heat—which Colorado also won.

Freshman Lindsey Scherf continued to lead the way for the Crimson by finishing 10th overall with a time of 20:50.1. Her time was just over 45 seconds behind race winner Renee Metevier of Colorado. Harvard’s next best runner following Scherf was sophomore Laura Maludzinski. Maludzinski was the only other Crimson runner in the top 100, finishing in 22:10.8 and earning 98th overall.

Other Harvard scorers include senior Lindsay Yourman (22:25.8) in 129th and freshman Sarah Bourne (22:49.5) in 162nd place. Last year, the Harvard women finished 26th on the heels of Maludzinski’s 69th-place finish.

Both Crimson teams have next weekend off, but will return to action on Oct. 29 in the Heptagonal Championships held in New York.

—Staff writer Gabriel M. Velez can be reached at gmvelez@fas.harvard.edu.