Men’s cross country
The Yale, Harvard and Princeton men’s cross country teams went head to head in the Bronx, New York, at their annual HYP meet in September, where Yale took home second place and Harvard settled in third. Bulldog captain James Randon ’17 claimed an individual victory at Van Cortlandt Park and repeated his dominance on the course at the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships, becoming just the third Yale runner in program history to win the meet. As a team, the Bulldogs finished fifth at the conference championship with 118 points, 76 points ahead of the Crimson’s eighth-place mark.
Women’s cross country
The Yale and Harvard women’s cross country teams challenged each other this season, solidifying their positions as the top-two teams in the Ivy League at the Ivy Heptagonal Championships in October. Harvard claimed the conference title led by a decisive individual win by junior Courtney Smith, while Yale — this year’s Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet winner — took second for the second year in a row. The two squads finished neck and neck once more in the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships, with the runner-up Crimson topping the third-place Bulldogs by 55 points.
Women’s crew
The Yale women’s crew met Harvard twice this fall at the season-opening The Head of the Housatonic regatta and at the famed Head of the Charles, where the Elis twice triumphed over their conference rival. Both Yale’s first and second boats toppled Harvard’s top crew in the varsity eight race at the Head of the Housatonic, with the Bulldogs’ A-crew crushing the Crimson by over six seconds. At the Head of the Charles, Yale’s top boat posted the best collegiate finish of any team in the race, dominating 13th-place Harvard by six seconds.
Men’s heavyweight crew
Yale’s and Harvard’s heavyweight crews have gone head to head twice this fall, with the Bulldogs and Crimson each walking away with a victory over the other. At the Head of the Housatonic, Yale’s fastest eight boat cruised to the win almost 16 seconds ahead of second-place Brown and 17 seconds ahead of Harvard’s third- and fourth-place crews. At the Head of the Charles, Harvard’s eight boat took third behind the University of Washington and the University of California, Berkeley, while Yale settled for fourth with a 15:03.09 time.
Men’s lightweight crew
At the 52nd Head of the Charles Regatta in Cambridge, Yale men’s lightweight crew finished in second place, beating seventh-place Harvard by nearly a full minute in the lightweight fours race. The lightweight eights also dominated, finishing fourth to the Crimson’s 10th. When the two teams faced off a second time in the Princeton three-mile Chase, the bronze Bulldogs beat the Crimson by one place in the men’s lightweight eights, while Harvard’s lightweight four won its race over the fifth-place Elis.
Field hockey
The women’s field hockey team fell 2–0 to Harvard at the start of the Bulldogs’ conference season. The Crimson’s two goals both came from freshman forward Bente van Vlijmen, while no Yale player could find the net past first-time starting goalkeeper Libby Manela. Both defenses kicked in after the Crimson took a 1–0 lead in the first 31 seconds of the game, with the only other scoring coming by van Vlijmen in the 26th minute. Harvard’s win over Yale kick-started its undefeated conference season, while the Elis clawed their way to a 3–4 Ivy League finish.
Men’s soccer
The Bulldogs and Crimson battled to a 3–3 double-overtime tie in one of the most exciting games of the 2016 season. The Bulldogs leapt out to a 2–0 lead and maintained an advantage for nearly two-thirds of the match before Harvard scored three unanswered goals in under 20 minutes. Down 3–2 with under 15 minutes remaining in regulation, captain and defender Henry Flugstad-Clarke ’17 scored in the 86th minute to put the Elis back into the game, which would end in a draw after the two extra periods. Yale finished sixth at 1–4–2 on the season, while Harvard fell to eighth after its final two games of the season were cancelled due to a controversy surrounding the team and sexual misconduct.
Women’s soccer
The Bulldogs battled against Harvard, falling 2–1 in a hard-fought game on Oct. 1. Yale forward Aerial Chavarin ’20, the eventual Ivy League Rookie of the Year, scored in the seventh minute to put the Elis up 1–0, but the Eli offense was unable to find the goal thereafter. Harvard midfielder Midge Purce equalized at 73:56 and fellow midfielder Caroline Chagares hammered home the go-ahead goal just seven minutes later. The Crimson claimed the conference title with an undefeated 5–0–2 record, while the Bulldogs finished sixth at 2–4–1.
Volleyball
The Yale volleyball team faced off against Harvard early in October, earning dominating 3–1 win to start a flawless home conference season. The Bulldogs traveled to Cambridge a month later to face the Crimson on its home court and needing a win to keep their title hopes alive. Although Yale had a strong showing — outside hitter Tristin Kott’s ’20 20 kills, libero Kate Swanson’s ’19 29 digs and setter Franny Arnautou’s ’20 49 assists were all career bests — the Bulldogs fell in a five-set heartbreaker. Yale nevertheless finished second in the Ivy League at 11–3, while Harvard finished fourth at 7–7.