At his home in Virginia, Charlie Ortmans’s bedroom is covered top to bottom in race bibs. Ortmans won an All-American title for Harvard at the NCAA Track and Field Outdoor National Championships in June—and visited home afterwards with a bag full of the season’s bibs to add to his wall decor.
Now a senior, Ortmans was one of eight Harvard track-and-field athletes to punch tickets to the NCAA championships, capping off a particularly strong 2025-26 season, when the team broke 12 school records and brought home five All-American titles across the indoor and outdoor seasons. Harvard cross-country also had a strong showing, with the men’s team and women’s captain Molly Malague competing in the NCAA Cross Country National Championships.
Last year also marked the first time in Harvard history that the men’s 4x100-meter relay team competed in the track national championships. And senior Tito Alofe became the first Harvard athlete to win a national title in the men’s high jump at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Jason Saretsky, the McCurdy director of both men’s and women’s teams in track and field and cross-country, is hoping to continue the success this year. The cross-country and track-and-field teams are preparing to welcome 26 incoming first-year athletes, a cohort that hails from 13 states and eight different countries. And only one of the eight track athletes who attended the NCAA outdoor championships was a graduating senior. All of last year’s event coaches are also staying at Harvard.
Consistency has a “compounding effect” over time, Ortmans says. “You continue to train, and at some point, it just kind of starts to click, as long as you’re able to stay on your feet for long enough.”
Alofe, the high jumper, is using the summer for rehabilitation. After battling a knee injury for over a year—and placing 12th in the NCAA outdoor competition after winning the indoor championships—he said he is taking the time away from competitions to slowly build back strength. Looking to his senior season, Alofe said his goal is simple: “I kind of just want to win every meet.”
For both the cross-country and track teams, Saretsky was happy to see many athletes competing at the national level last year. “It was just great to see them get that taste for it,” he said. “With so many of them back, I’m hoping that’s exactly what it was—a taste—and that they want more.”
