PHILADELPHIA — The 2023 Ivy League Heptagonal Outdoor Track and Field Championships drew to a close on Sunday, with Harvard picking up both team titles. The Crimson men picked up the 11th outdoor title in program history with 203 total, while the Harvard women earned team title number six behind a 193-point weekend.
 
Maia Ramsden gave Harvard a win in the women’s 5K (16:19.18) before later adding another conference title in the 1500m (4:12.54) to collect Women’s Most Outstanding Track Performer honors. After dominating the hammer throw on Saturday afternoon, Harvard's Kenneth Ikeji was selected as the Men’s Most Outstanding Field Performer.
 
Ahead of Ramsden’s win in the 5K was conference record holder Graham Blanks (13:56.44), who took home championship gold after winning the men’s 10K on Saturday. On his heels was Harvard teammate Acer Iverson, as his time of 13:59.79 added eight more points to the Crimson’s growing total. Damian Hackett stood atop the podium after the men’s 1500m, winning the event with a time of 3:43.98.
 
Chris Balthazar of Columbia was voted as the Men’s Most Outstanding Track Performer after winning both the 100m (10.39) and the 200m with a meet record time of 20.41. Women’s Most Outstanding Field Performer honors went to Brown’s Lauren Yaboah-Kodie, who won the long jump on Saturday and finished second (12.95 m / 42’ 6”) in Sunday’s triple jump.
 
The women’s 100m champion came from Penn, as freshman Moforehan Abinusawa won a nailbiter with a time of a 11.47 over Harvard’s Tina Martin (11.61). The 200m saw Harvard claim a 1-2 finish, with Martin (23.295) and Adaji Osaro-Igwe (23.297) forcing the timekeepers to look into the thousdandths of a second to determine a winner.
 
The Crimson swept the shot put on Sunday, with Alexander Kolesnikoff (19.92 m / 65’ 4¼”) winning the men’s crown and Sarah Omoregie (17.41 m / 57’ 1½”) picking up the women’s title. Harvard’s Daniel Falode (15.41 m / 50’ 6¾”) added another field win in the men’s triple jump, while Princeton freshman Alexandra Kelly took the women’s honor with a distance of 13.23 m (43’ 5”).
 
Brown took both individual crowns in the high jump, with John McNeil (2.11 m / 6’ 11”) and Chiamaka Odenigbo (1.75 m / 5’ 8¾”) winning the men’s and women’s events, respectively. Matthew Appel of Yale (59.65 m / 195’ 8”) and Harvard’s Estel Valeanu (56.77 m / 186’ 3”) finished as winners in the discus, giving the Crimson four field wins on Sunday alone.
 
Cornell’s 4x400 team took the men’s race with a time of 3:07.95, less than half a second off the meet record set by Princeton a season ago. The Big Red also came away with first in the men’s 4x800, doing so with a championship time of 7:24.80. On the women’s side, Penn pulled off the win in a tight 4x400 race, as the team time of 3:37.26 was just enough to edge second-place Harvard. Dartmouth came away with the 4x800 title, picking up 10 points with a time of 8:39.15.
 
The Crimson swept the 400 hurdles, with sophomore Chloe Fair (57.75) picking up the women’s title and four Harvard men finishing on the podium, including the top three individuals. Cornell’s Christian Martin (13.85) took home then men’s 110 hurdles title, while Penn senior Katherine Muccio (13.51) winning the women’s short hurdles.
 
The 800m proved to be a big event for Darmouth, with DJ Matusz (1:49.59) winning the men’s event and senior Julia Fenerty (2:03.81) setting a meet record to claim the women’s crown. Cornell’s Tomas Kersulis (46.47) earned the individual victory in the men’s 400m, with Victoria Bossong of Harvard (52.55) taking the same event on the women’s side.
 
The men’s 4x100 relay saw Harvard (40.35) edge Penn (40.37) in a photo finish to pick up a conference title, while the Penn women (45.19) flipped the script to beat Harvard (45.35) to earn gold of their own. In the steeple, Penn senior Michael Keehan turned in a time of 8:45.65 to earn first place, while Victoria Patterson of Columbia (10:02.86) widened the gap early to close the event with a 15-second edge over second place.
 
Princeton decathlete Phillip Kastner picked up event wins in the 100m, long jump, shot put, high jump and 110 hurdles to total 7,320 points on his way to an Ivy League title. Harvard saw another 1-2 finish in the heptathlon, with Jada Johnson winning the 100 hurdles, 200m and 800m to finish the weekend with 5,153 points and a gold medal.
 
To view the weekend’s full results, please click here. For those who qualify, the NCAA East Preliminary Round is set to being on May 24 and will be hosted by the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.