Runners Top Brown As Quirk Sets Pace

"The present problem is to regroup after the medical version of Hurricane Bertha," coach Bill McCurdy said before yesterday's meet, but the Harvard cross country team looked like Sherman's army going through Georgia as they ran past Brown, 15-47.

The harriers took the top five places and junior John Quirk won the race by covering the Franklin Field course in 27:18.

Marshall Jone (27:35), Jere Hines (28:03), Tom New (28:03) and captain Mike Koerner (28:30) all came in ahead of the first Bruin, Larry McMahon, and Harvard's Nat Guild and George Barker finished seventh and ninth respectively.

"Brown offered no opposition," McCurdy observed at the conclusion of the race.

In addition to the barrage of early season injuries, the harriers have been hard hit this past week by a virus which forced sophomore Rick Rojas to sit out yesterday's meet. Rojas, the team's most consistant performer this year, took first place in Tuesday's race against Providence and U. Mass. Koerner, who had been heavily favored to win yesterday's race, was another of the virus' victims.

Quirk's victory was a dramatic advance in his surprisingly rapid recovery from a pre-season injury. He chopped off 47 seconds from his time on the same course on Tuesday. In that meet he finished third.

The easy victory, which lifted the harriers' season record to 5-1, took some of the sting out of last week's drubbing at the hands of Penn. But the big news is still injuries, and McCurdy doesn't think that the situation will be much better in the near future.

Six runners who were in competition for the squad's top five positions have been injured so far this season. Of these, Quirk is the only one who has regained anything approaching top form. Bobby Seals finished fifteenth in Tuesday's meet, but the virus forced him to drop out of yesterday's race.

"The heart has been cut out of this team, but those who are left have kept scrambling when they could have just been going through the motions. You have to have respect for these guys," McCurdy said.

McCurdy attributes the Harriers' staying power to the strong sense of tradition which has been built up by Harvard cross country over the years. "There is a real sense of team unity, and the individual is willing to fight against an injury in order to pick up a few places and help the team win a meet." McCurdy explained.

"We've been lucky," McCurdy said. "Penn clobbered us, but the rest of these teams haven't been able to take advantage of our injuries."

The Harriers' next meet is at Ithaca against a strong Cornell team on October 16. The Freshmen, who were idle yesterday, will run against Andover this coming Wednesday.