Sports in brief

HMS student takes bronze at World University Games

Third-year Harvard Medical School (HMS) graduate student Elizabeth Shakhnovich captured a bronze medal for the U.S. Taekwondo Team this month at the World University Games in Izmir, Turkey. A Ph.D. candidate in microbiology, Shakhnovich defeated athletes from Taiwan and Vietnam before dropping her match to Kyung-Seom Hwang of Korea in the welterweight semifinals.

Football poll pegs Penn past Crimson

The defending Ivy champion Harvard football team recently finished one vote behind Penn in the league’s 2005 preseason poll. Both teams received eight first-place votes, which were cast by 16 members of the media who cover Ivy football.

This September, the Crimson, which garnered 119 points in the summer poll, will return All-American running back Clifton Dawson ’07. A likely candidate for both Ivy Player of the Year and Walton Payton Award honors, Dawson has averaged 131 yards per game over the past two seasons. Meanwhile, Harvard will have to adjust to the absence of 2004 League Player of the Year Ryan Fitzpatrick ’05. Harvard’s three-year starter at quarterback, Fitzpatrick signed a professional contract with the St. Louis Rams shortly before graduating this past June.

All told, Harvard returns 15 starters to the field in 2005 (seven on offensive, six on defensive, and a pair on special teams). Meanwhile, Penn, which finished 2004 with an 8-2 record, allowed just 86 points in league play to top the Ivies. The Quakers will field six returning All-Ivy honorees.

Rounding out the poll is Brown in third place (91 points), followed by Yale (66 points), Cornell (63 points), Princeton (57 points), Dartmouth (36 points), and Columbia (24 points).

Harvard football kicks off on Sept. 17 with the Crimson opening at Holy Cross. The Cambridge crew will hold its home opener opposite Brown on Sept. 24.

In other athletic news, this season SIRIUS Satellite Radio will carry a “Game of the Week” for both Ivy football and men’s basketball. SIRIUS will also broadcast a select number of men’s hockey and other games from across the Ivy League sports programs.