Veteran McLoone, Soph Spengler Add Depth to Undefeated Harriers

A senior veteran who may have finally shaken his injury jinx and a sophomore who is running better than anyone expected are two of the men who figure prominently in the Harvard cross country team's chances to continue the glowing success it has enjoyed so far this year.

Tim McLoone '69 hurt his hip midway through his sophomore year and suffered nerve damage in his left calf early last season. His bad luck continued when he pulled a thigh muscle on the second day of this year's pre-season training camp. But he has recovered fully and now feels he can do the best running he has ever done.

Tom Spengler '71, who finished second behind Dave Pottetti in all but one freshman meets last year, has come into his own on the varsity this season. He has outrun Pottetti twice and has placed fourth or better in all but one meet.

McLoone and Spengler are running on a team that has won all of its meets this year--four duals and two triangulars. Both, says Coach Bill McCurdy, "are key people in the team's chances for the rest of the year."

The great depth of this year's team has enabled McLoone to train at his own pace, instead of being forced to enter dual meets before his injuries are completely healed, as was the case last year.

If he does well enough in today's Greater Boston meet and in the Heptagonals a week from Friday, McLoone will join Spengler and five others in the IC4-A meet on November 18 and the NCAA meet a week later. He placed seventh in the Greater Bostons and 21st in the Heptagonals last year.

McLoone feels that the Crimson barriers have progressed tremendously since his first year. "When I was a sophomore," he says, "our big goal was the Ivy League championship; last year it was the Heptagonals. This year we're treating our dual meets as training and the Heptagonals as preparation for the IC4-A's and the NCAA."

"As sophomores," he adds, "we were all conscious of our own individual performances, but now we're team-conscious; we still push each other, but everybody is interested in the success of the team."

Spengler feels that his improved performance this year may be partially due to a change in his attitude. "When I was in high school," he explains, "I ran just because I was good at it, but now I really enjoy running."

Hard work, however, has to be the big reason for Spengler's improvement. McCurdy calls him a "two hundred per center who just keeps on making hard efforts where others would shy away."

"Everybody expected Tom to be good this year," McCurdy says, "but not this good. Very few sophomores have ever been so steady at so high a level of performance."

Spengler likes to run alone, and he likes to run often. He seems to have a partially masochistic motive for the gruelling daily routine to which he puts himself. He explains this by saying, "the more pain you subject yourself to in order to gain a reward, the more meaningful the reward is."