CROSS COUNTRY: Bulldogs upset Harvard in opening race
In their first race of the season against Harvard, the Bulldogs had a strong showing against the Harvard Crimson.
Yale Athletics
On Friday, both men’s and women’s cross country teams opened the season with a win against Harvard at Highland Park in Attleboro, Mass.
The women’s team swept the top nine places and secured a significant win of 15-50. The men’s team beat Harvard with a score of 23-36.
The meet marked the rivals’ first head-to-head race since 2019.
In previous years, the two teams competed against each other and the Princeton Tigers in an annual race known as the HYP — Harvard-Yale-Princeton — meet. Because Princeton hosted the New Jersey Jam race on Friday night, they could not join Harvard and Yale in Attleboro.
At the 2023 HYP season opener, the Yale women’s team came in last with the top returning scorer, Linde Fonville ’26, placing 10th in a time of 14:00. Harvard’s women, the 2022 and 2023 Ivy League Champions, placed second, beating Yale 36-59.
This weekend, however, the Bulldogs shook Harvard’s confidence by securing the win. Charlotte Whitehurst ’26 won the race with a time of 14:19. Fonville came in third at 14:32.
The men’s team defended their win last year and beat Harvard with a final score of 23-36. Owen Karas ’26 won the event for the second consecutive year with a time of 17:54, setting a new personal record.
Notably, Harvard’s Joe Ewing finished second, with a gap of nine seconds behind Karas.
“I have had a solid summer of training, so I felt confident going into the race,” Karas wrote to the News.
Karas said he was proud of his record, and it was “what he set out to do.”
Harvard and Yale’s men’s teams pulled some of their top scorers and focused on acquainting less experienced runners to a race environment.
Though the team’s success was substantial and will help to build momentum for the new season, Karas noted that the Bulldogs had an advantage given their number of runners in attendance compared to the Crimson. The Yale men’s team sent 12 runners, whereas Harvard sent six.
“Harvard sent [fewer] guys than us, which definitely affected their team score. Both programs treat the race as a sort of rust-buster for the season,” Karas wrote.
The opening race underscored the potential of many returning Yale runners.
However, as previous Ivy Champions, Harvard could potentially have some secret weapons; they sent one new female runner and no new male runners to this opening race, leaving questions about their up-and-coming talent.
Still, the score difference, especially among women, suggests that the Crimson possibly underestimated Yale and can expect a competitive season.
The Bulldogs will return to Massachusetts for the Codfish Bowl meet on Sept. 21 at Franklin Park, the Ivy League Heptagonal Championship racecourse.