SENIOR PROFILE: Erison Hurtault

Erison Hurtault, CC '07, has dominated the track since his freshman year, flying to the head of the pack and never looking back.

Recently becoming the first male runner to win eight straight Ivy League titles in both indoor and outdoor Heps, Hurtault has capped off what is arguably the single-greatest career in the history of the Ivy League.

Yet Hurtault's future remains uncertain.

Although the economics major has "wanted to be in finance since high school" and already holds an offer to work for a New York investment firm, Hurtault also has the opportunity to become the first person to run the 400-meter sprint for the Commonwealth of Dominica at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Both of Hurtault's parents were born on the Caribbean island, which qualifies him to compete on the team-a fact which he only discovered during a chance encounter with Jerome Romaine, a former Olympic triple jumper for Dominica, during his freshman year.

"It was in 2004, and he was telling me that I could have been in the Olympics that year," Hurtault said. "I had no idea about anything."

Whether Hurtault chooses to run in 2008 depends on whether he can improve his time enough to compete at this year's world championship.

"That's definitely going to be the deciding factor," Hurtault said. "I want to see how fast I end up running this year, because at the point I am right now, a half a second can make a big difference. I don't want to just run at worlds-the real goal is to run at the Olympics. So I'm going to wait until the end of my collegiate season to make that decision."

Despite his success, the New Jersey native remains humble and said he is thankful for the years he spent wearing the Light Blue.

"I've learned the most from the other people that I've met here," Hurtault said. "No matter what you're doing, you meet so many people who are just so driven in their respective fields. Coming from a public school in a small town in Jersey, Columbia was an experience like nothing else I've had in my life."