When sophomore high jumper Kart Siilats committed to transfer to Harvard this past year and senior NCAA champion Dora Gyorffy announced she would return to compete during the Crimson's spring semester following her Olympic break, it was inevitable that Harvard would one day have two of the best high jumpers in the world competing side-by-side.

Friday night in the New York City, Gyorffy and Siilats both competed at the Millrose Games, the self-proclaimed greatest indoor track and field event in the world, which this year was highlighted by Stacey Dragila crushing her own indoor pole vault world record.

Although the individual results of the meet were not what either athlete had hoped for, it was the beginning of a new era of Harvard high-jump dominance that should continue throughout this season.

"It was pretty bad," Gyorffy said of her 1.82-meter finish, which placed her fifth in the competition, down a bit from her second-place finish last year. "I had a minor sprain in my ankle which had to be taped up. Basically I shouldn't have competed this week. But it was a fun meet."

Siilats topped out at the 1.78-meter bar, which placed her last out of the seven competitors in the highly selective field. The event was won at 1.96 meters by Amy Acuff, the U.S. National Team member and high-jump celebrity who has appeared in Rolling Stone and the Tonight Show.

Siilats, the Estonian national record holder, and Gyorffy, the Hungarian national champion, constitute the beginning of what could become a Crimson Eastern Europe high-jump dynasty. Gyorffy's success was likely an attraction in Siilats' decision to come.

"I was hosting [Siilats] when she visited," Gyorffy said. "She liked Harvard, and my example showed her that she could do well in track, and [getting] a good degree [was] very important to her."

There are better performances than this past weekend's yet to come from both Siilats and Gyorffy. Siilats, with her 1.84-meter jump in her opening meet against Boston College, has the highest collegiate jump in the country at this point of the season. Her personal best is 1.89 meters at the 1999 World Championships. Gyorffy jumped 1.90 meters at a competition in Hungary a week before returning to Harvard, and has jumped as high as 1.97 meters at the Indoor Heptagonals last year.