After beating Harvard in the indoor season, the men’s track team fell to the Cantabs 91 to 71 Saturday at Yale’s Dewitt Cuyler Field.

The Elis swept the high jump and turned in six first-place finishes, but they could not keep up with Harvard. Crimson co-captain and distance runner John Traugott and sprinter Chris Lambert, one of Great Britain’s national track team’s top sprinters, led the Crimson. Traugott won the 800 (1:51.90) and 1500-meter (3:52.94) races. Lambert won the 100 (10.62) and 200-meter (20.7) races and anchored Harvard’s winning quarter-mile-relay (42.06).

Distance runner Josh Yelsey ’05 called the meet a “let-down” after the Bulldogs’ success during the indoor season. The meet had added significance, Yelsey said, because event winners are guaranteed to represent Yale and Harvard in June when the schools unite to compete against the tandem of Oxford and Cambridge. Yelsey took second in the 1500-meter race (3:54.14).

Associate coach David Shoehalter had nothing but praise for Harvard.

“They ran well,” Shoehalter said. “You can’t discount Harvard stepping up and running well.”

Yale’s event winners were Robert DeLaski ’06 in the 400-meter race (49.53), Lucas Meyer ’05 in the 3000-meter steeplechase (9:08.90), Anthony Thomas ’03 in the long jump (7.18 meters), Derin Bray ’04 in the high jump (2.01 meters) and Jordan Chapman ’05 in the pole vault (4.40 meters). The mile-relay team also won (3:18.80).

Shomari Taylor ’06 could have joined the list of people crossing the Atlantic — and still could if Yale and Harvard coaches select him — had he not fallen in the 400 meter hurdles.

“Well, I was running a good race; I felt confident,” Taylor said. “I was neck-and-neck with the guy, and I lost concentration and fell down.”

Taylor’s refusal to give up impressed Shoehalter; Taylor got up and finished the race, almost placing third, the last position to count for scoring.

Shoehalter also pointed to Thomas’ performance, not just in the long jump but in sprints.

“He ran a very good 100 and just a tremendous 200,” Shoehalter said. “He had a very, very good meet.”

Meyer’s time qualified him for IC4A and NCAA Regionals in his first steeplechase of the year. He estimates he won by 16 seconds.

“I didn’t run anywhere near as fast as I wanted to, but it was good to win,” Meyer said. “[There was not] too much competition. — I ran significantly slower at this race this year than last year, so I need to get going.”

The team looks forward to rematching Harvard in New Haven again on the same track when Yale hosts the Heptagonals, the Ivy League championship, in the first week of May.

“We do have a chance to redeem ourselves at Heps on our own track,” Meyer said.

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