Harvard Runners to Face Uphill Road Against Brown

"These boys have one main objective--the Heptagonals," Brown coach Ivan Fuqua said last month of his cross-country squad. The Harvard meet in Providence today doesn't rate much consideration.

It's not without reason that the Bruin runners have set their sights for this fall so high. Last year Brown lost only one regular season meet, won the New England championship, placed second in the Heptagonals, second in the IC4A's, and 12th in the NCAA championships.

Gone from that squad is captain Dave Farley, but returning are a host of fine, experienced runners and a bumper crop of sophomores. The team looks so strong that the Harvard runners, no slouches in their own right, will be hard pressed today just to equal the six-point loss to Brown a year ago.

The Bruins slaughtered Yale, 15-48, last week, scoring "excellent times on the New Haven course," according to Harvard coach Bill McCurdy.

Co-captains Vic Boog and Bob Rothenberg took first and second, and junior Bill Kinsella, senior Rich Baglow, and sophomore Jim Ackroyd swept the fourth, fifth, and sixth positions.

The Crimson's Walt Hewlett can match any of these Bruins man for man, but Brown's depth should be too much for the Harvard runners, who dropped second, third and fourth places in their loss to Providence last week.

Despite the gloomy evidence of statistics, McCurdy is sticking to his optimistic guns. "I think we can win," he said yesterday, "Hewlett and (Captain Bill) Crain have had slight colds this week, but I think they're ready."

If the meet is to be close, Crain must improve on his fifth-place finish against Providence. McCurdy is also counting on Dave Allen and John Ogden to move up from their seventh and ninth-place showings of a week ago.

Even with improvement from all three, the Crimson seems to be without a fifth man. Soccer player Keith Chiappa contributed his services against the Friars but won't be available for today's trip to Providence.