Varsity Track Seems Unbeatable As Strong Indoor Season Closes

What's big? powerful, fast steady, unbeatable, and getting better every day? The Harvard Track Team. Last year's squad was the best in the University's history, and this year's looks still better.

It has six university record holders, four of whom are only sophomores. Its two-mile relay also holds a Harvard record. The team has speed and depth in the track events, and power and potential in the field contests. It hasn't lost a meet in two seasons after facing the toughest competition in the East.

When you watch Chris Paradee sail over a crossbar at 6 ft., 10 in., or Jim Baker pound out two miles in 9:05.5, it all looks so easy. But the team's victories have been especially difficult this year. As the indoor season opened it found itself without some of its best runners, and with lots of its best runners, and with lots of promise but no security in the weight events.

Sprinter Sam Robinson, the team's number-one dash man, was out for the season. Sophomore Dave McKelvey couldn't run the 600-yard dash until the Heptagonals, the last meet of the indoor season. And two of the top-distance runners, seniors Dave Alien and Walt Hewlett, were knocked out by a thesis and strained muscles, respectively. The two chief men in the weight events, sophomores Ron Wilson and Carter Lord, were promising but untried.

Coach Bill McCurdy stresses his team's resilience, its ability to absorb losses and still come out on top. "We worked much harder than last year's squad," McCurdy said yesterday. "This is as good as any team we've ever had and maybe better."

Its resilience has best been demonstrated in tight meet competition, for instance in the indoor Heptagonals March 12. "We pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps in the Heps," said McCurdy. Harvard edged out Army to win that meet 57-56, Harvard's third consecutive Heps victory and the highest point total in the tournament's history. Last year's Harvard varsity won the meet with 49 points. This year's group not only won the meet but also set three University records in the process.

Senior Tony Lynch tore across the 60-yard high hurdlers in 7.2, setting a Heps record and tying his Harvard mark set at the IC4A's the week before. Fellow senior Pardee won the high jump at 6 ft., 10 1/4 in., also a University record, and sophomore Steve Schoonover soared 14 ft., 4 in. in the pole vault.

The runners and jumpers have depth as well as class. Sophomore Jeff Huvelle holds the University record for the 600-yard run at 1:10.5, and sophomore Trey Burns is the 1000-yard record-holder at 2:10.4. Last year's team couldn't boast a single 14-ft., plus pole vaulter, but this year's squad boasts two, Junior Dave Bell hit 14-ft. in the Heps, while Schoonover cleared 14 ft., 4 in. Sprinter Wayne Anderson has run the 60-yard dash in 6.2

And sophomore Jim Baker has ably filled in for Hewlett and Allen by slicing the two-mile record down to 9:05.5.

But the greatest thing about the team is its promise, both immediate and distant. Pardee has just these final two months to break 7 ft., but he could do it. He takes off several feet further back than the average jumper, getting tremendous spring from his forward motion. He can reach 6 ft., 7 in. with a backward roll, and could, with more upward and less forward spring, go much higher. Both Schoonover and Bell have shown rapid improvement, and, says McCurdy, they could break 15 ft. in the vault this spring.

Weight man Ron Wilson hasn't smashed any records so far, but 'he could be as good as any man we've ever had," says McCurdy. He threw the 35 pound weight and put the shot during the indoor season, and he'll throw the 16-pound weight, the discus, and the shot this spring.

As they prepare for their Puerto Rico trip coming in a week, the trackmen still have large gaps in their ranks. They need back-up sprinters for Andersen and Lynch, more depth in the javelin, broad jump, and the hop-skin and jump. Their early meets should be easy--they start off on April 16 against Brown--but they face an incredibly fired-up Army in the Outdoor Heps.