Runners Trounce Rhode Island, in Winter's Opener

Four Bobs--Twitchell, Rittenburg, Mello, and Curran--combined efforts Saturday afternoon in Briggs Cage to help bring pessimistic Bill McCurday an overwhelming 78 1/3 to 30 2/3 victory over Rhode Island in his debut as Harvard track coach.

The anticipated Rhode Island individual power--hurt by the absence of star high and broad jumper Bob Fererara--never materialized, while the sophomore strength that McCurdy had counted on brought in 27 points.

Twitchell was the only double winner of the meet. He took the 40 yard high hurdles in 5.3 seconds, and the 40 yard dash in 4.7 seconds. Rittenburg, high scorer on last year's freshman team, was second to him in the hurdles, tied for first in the high jump with Don Whitehead, and took second in the broad jump.

Mello won the broad jump and soared 12 feet 6 inches in the pole vault for second place behind Rhode Island's Bob Linne. Curran threw the 35 pound weight 52 feet 1 1/4 inches to beat Whitey Black and Dirck Walecka in one of three Crimson sweeps.

Walecka won the shot put with a heave of 46 feet 2 1/2 inches, with teammate Gil Murray taking second.

Last year's star Yardling quarter-milers ran well in the 600, 1000 and mile relay. Pete Coker and Paul Grand took second and third behind the Rhody's Joe Pizzo in 1:16.4 in the 600. Warren Little edged Guido Perrera for second in the 1000, won by the Crimson's Jack Richards in 2:24. Little, Grand, Alan Howe, and Coker captured the mile relay easily, and their time was 3:33.5.

Sophomore Herb Collins took second in the dash behind Twitchell, with teammate Charlie Arena third.

As expected, Harvard was weak in the distance events. Rhode Island won the mile, two mile, and two mile relay.