Harvard track is back, and both the men’s and women’s teams made no small statement by winning last Saturday’s meet at Gordon Track. After suffering losses to Northeastern and MIT in an uninspired performance at the Greater Boston Invitational on Feb. 2, the men crushed Yale, 92.5 to 43.5, posting a winner in virtually every event. The women, also coming off a loss to BU, battled both Yale and Princeton. They came away victorious, putting up 61 points to Princeton’s 58 and Yale’s 40.

Harvard Men

There was no mistaking Harvard’s aim entering this meet, according to co-captain Kobie Fuller.

“We wanted to come out and absolutely crush Yale,” Fuller said. “We wanted to make a statement, and show them that we were on a different level.”

Based on the Crimson’s performance, one can scarcely argue that Fuller was overestimating his team’s ability.

A Harvard athlete won every event on the track, save for the 4x400 and 4x800-meter relays.

“We dominated in every area,” Fuller continued. “The slip-up in the relays isn’t a worry, because we can put together better teams for [the Heptagonal Championships on Feb. 23-24]. We gave some people a rest this weekend, and ran others in different events.”

Fuller ran the 500, but usually competes in the 200-meter event. Not much was different for him in the outcome, however, as he coasted to victory by two-and-a-half seconds. He was only one-tenth of a second off the school record in a race that he had not run since the first meet of his freshman year.

Fuller’s performance has made him consider running longer distances in the next few weeks, perhaps competing in the 400-meter event at Heps.

“Who knows? It’s something I’m thinking about,” Fuller said. “I was just happy to take some points away from Yale at the distances where they were supposed to be strong.”

The Crimson swept the top two spots in the 400, and the top three in the 800, proving Harvard’s strength in the middle distances.

In the mile, Harvard was led by junior Alasdair McLean-Foreman, who was coming off his standout performance at Notre Dame’s Meyo Invitational the week before. After posting a time just one second slower than the NCAA provisional qualifying cutoff at the Notre Dame meet, McLean-Foreman turned in a slightly disappointing performance of 4:12.39, and was given some competition by Yale runner Robert Dwyer’s late surge.

McLean-Foreman held Dwyer off, but attributed his uneven performance to his inexperience at that distance.

“This was just my second race at that distance,” said McLean-Foreman, who traditionally ran the 800. “I learn something new every time I run it, and hope to put up better times.”

This week, McLean learned the importance of pacing himself.