Look just about anywhere at Yale University and you’ll find deep-rooted history - even on the track and field team.
This past week, select members of the men’s and women’s teams traveled to the United Kingdom to compete in a meet at Cambridge that is more than a century old. What’s even more unique: the Bulldogs were competing with their Ivy League rivals in Cambridge, Mass.
That’s right, Yale and Harvard, on the same team. The two joining forces to match up with a combined team of Oxford and Cambridge in a competition that started in 1894.
“Being able to pass off a baton to someone I usually would try to outcompete in a race in the regular season is really cool,” said Molly Harding, a first-year sprinter from Glastonbury.
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The meet typically alternates between the U.S. and UK every two years. The pandemic halted the event so they held two this season, one on each side of the pond.
“If someone has a good throw, you go tell them they had a good throw and then it helps you want to throw farther yourself,” said Matt Appel, a junior thrower at Yale. “If I'm up against one of the Harvard throwers and they have a huge throw, it's only going to make me want to throw farther, too.”
The competition won’t go away, even with the 15-straight win streak held by the Harvard-Yale team, even with a shared logo.
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“It's not a Harvard and Yale, it's a Harvard-Yale team. We have one logo that we wear, we put on the same uniform,” said Yale track and Field Director David Shoehalter. “This is a team that we're trying to beat every time that we go against them and here we are we're teammates...First day that we're there it's like a middle school dance. Harvard team is on one side of the room, Yale is on the other. By the end of the trip, they really do act like one team and it's a really neat thing to see.”
