Championships Central | Photo Gallery | Archived ILDN Broadcast

PRINCETON, N.J. -- The Harvard women’s track and field team came back in a big way on day two of the Ivy League Heptagonal Outdoor Track & Field Championships, as the Crimson claimed its third-straight title.

Harvard totaled 160 points over the two days to hold off host Princeton (139). Cornell placed third with 107 points, followed by Columbia (85), Dartmouth (81), Brown (51), Penn (47) and Yale (12).

The Crimson’s three-peat is its first in program history, as they become the fourth team to accomplish the feat and the first since Cornell won seven-straight from 2002-07.

After the day’s events, the Ivy League coaches honored Princeton head coach Peter Farrell, who is retiring after 39 years at the helm of the Tigers.

Harvard picked up six event wins on Sunday, including two each from senior Autumne Franklin and freshman Gabby Thomas. Franklin took both the hurdles, the first Ivy to accomplish the feat since Columbia’s Kyra Caldwell in 2010. Franklin won her fourth 100mH title, just the second Ivy to do so, joining Brown’s Susan Smith (1990-93). Thomas claimed the 100m (11.55) and 200m dashes (23.83), setting meet records in the former. She’s the first Ivy to claim both at the same Ivy Heps since Columbia’s Marvellous Iheukwumere. Franklin and Thomas also combined with freshman Ngozi Musa and junior Jade Miller to win the 4x100m relay.

Crimson junior Nikki Okwelogu was also a two-event winner to pace Harvard in the field events, defending her discus title with a meet record throw of 180-08 on Saturday and claiming her third-straight shot put on Sunday. She is the first Crimson and fourth Ivy to win three shot put titles, and the first since Dartmouth’s Amy Winchester (1993-95-96).

For their efforts, Franklin and Okwelogu were voted by the coaches Most Outstanding Track and Most Outstanding Field Performers, respectively.

Dartmouth senior Dana Giordano was the other two-event winner at Ivy Heps, claiming the 1,500m and 5K. In doing so, she became the first Ivy League woman ever to win the 1,500m title in three straight seasons and just the third ever on either the men’s or women’s side to accomplish the feat (Dartmouth’s Donald Burnham did so in 1942-44, while Harvard’s Mark Mullin was the last to do so in 1960-62). She also became the first Ivy League woman ever to win both the 1,500 and 5K in the same year.

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