Yale Harriers Score; Benjamin Sets Mark

"Heartbreakers" are athletic contests in which you almost do what you set out to do, but not quite. And in cross-country, as in almost every other sport, a miss is as good as a mile. Yale met premeet expectations yesterday, barely defeating the varsity and Princeton 34-36-59.

Dyke Benjamin fulfilled Crimson hopes, running to a distinguished victory and a record time of 25:21 on the Franklin Park course. Yale's Bachrach trailed Benjamin and Jed Fitzgerald for half of the race, but finished nearly half a minute behind the Crimson captain.

But behind the leaders, the real race took place. The Crimson had been instructed to break up Yale's top five runners, and until the last half mile of the race, they had succeeded in spitting up the leaders. At this point, however, when the Crimson runners were feeling the pace, Yale's Carroll and Morrison slowly moved up into fourth and seventh places, passing the point-makers. Fitzgerald, who had run himself out following Benjamin eary in the race, fell back to ninth, giving the harriers sixth, eighth, ninth, and twelfth places.

McCurdy Commends Crimson

"It was a great race by all five of our boys," said Coach Bill McCurdy. "I've never seen as impressive a performance by seniors," he said, referring to Benjamin, Willie Thompson, and Jim Schlaeppi. "One more place by any one of our men would have won the meet for us."

"It was one of the closest dual meets I have even seen." McCurdy said, "Last year's meet was close, but the places were pretty well settled. This meet wasn't decided even at the three hundred yard mark."

Kingston finished third and Hudson fifth for Princeton, but the Tigers offered little trouble after that. It was Yale's fifth triangular victory since 1948, when the series was started.

Princeton proved unexpectedly strong in the freshman meet, running to a 23-41-56 victory over the Yardlings and Yale. Mark Mullin sped to victory over Elliott of Princeton in the time of 15:00. Slansky finished fourth for the Crimson and Field was ninth. It was the Yardlings third defeat in dual or triangular competition this season.