Harriers Finish Sixth in Heptagonals

NEW YORK CITY--The longest and most frustrating cross-country season at Harvard in more than a decade came to a predictable end at Van Cortlandt Park yesterday afternoon.

Performing so effortlessly that its competing in the race at all seemed only to be a gesture of goodwill, Pennsylvania breezed to its first Heptagonal victory ever, dumping previously undefeated Cornell and leaving Harvard, the defending champion, a badly beaten sixth. Navy, Princeton and Dartmouth also placed ahead of Harvard in the ten-team field.

It was the first time in five years that a Bill McCurdy squad returned to Cambridge without the team trophy, and it was the Crimson's most disappointing finish since 1959. But it was not entirely unexpected.

"On paper, we figured to place anywhere from fourth to seventh," said McCurdy, "depending upon how well people like Rick Rojas and John Quirk performed." Penn, who had whipped Harvard at Van Cortlandt last month, and Cornell, who did the same two weeks later, and Navy all appeared to be out of reach.

But Princeton, victors over the Crimson in last week's Big Three meet, was considered beatable, and Harvard had already defeated Dartmouth in a dual meet earlier in the fall. So while no one on the Crimson squad was really surprised to see the Heptagonal title slip away, sixth place was equally unforeseen.

"The team, as a whole, wasn't as aggressive in the early segment of the race as it might have been." McCurdy commented later, "and it was probably at that point that Princeton and Dartmouth wrapped up fourth and fifth places."

At the mile mark, only captain Mike Koerner was among the leaders. Cornell's Phil Ritson and Don Alexander were setting the pace, trying gamely to offset the awesome Penn depth. But by then, the race was already reduced to a team battle for second place. Five Quaker runners--freshman Dave Merrick, sophomore Denis Fikes, junior Bob Childs and seniors Julio Piazza and Karl Thornton--were clustered behind the Cornell men and Koerner, and following them was a group that included a comfortable number of Penn shirts.

At the halfway mark along the five-mile course, Merrick and Thornton passed Ritson, Childs overtook Alexander, and Koerner dropped to seventh.

After four miles, little had changed. Koerner, the only Harvard man in the top 20, had fallen back to ninth, and Merrick had opened a lead of 100 yards over Thornton and Ritson. At the last, Ritson outkicked Thornton for second, but Merrick held on to win the race in 24:31.8, breaking Doug Hardin's meet record by more than three seconds. Thornton, Childs, Piazza and Fikes swept third through sixth places, and Koerner placed tenth, assuring himself of a berth on the All-Ivy squad. But the next Harvard men were far back--Quirk (23rd), Fred Linsk (35th), Marshall Jones (37th), Jerry Hines (40th), Tom New (41st), Rojas (55th), Nat Guild (66th) and Abe Jones (75th).

McCurdy is undecided about plans for the IC4A meet a week from Monday--he may send a team composed of both varsity and freshman runners, in view of the freshmen squad's fine performance yesterday. Placing second to a Penn sub-varsity squad composed primarily of upperclassmen, six men--Jim Hughes, Jim Keefe, Bob Rapp, Bill Muller. George Farrelly and Bob Reason--finished with times under 15:50, the first time a Yardling team has ever done that well.