Quakers Win IC4A's; Clayton Third in Half-Mile

The University of Pennsylvania unseated perennial winner Villanova to take the team title in the 51st annual IC4A Track and Field Championships which ended Saturday at Princeton's Jadwyn Cage. Harvard placed a distant 20th with five points, compared to the Quakers winning total of 26.

Penn, which has gone from a second-division Ivy track school to the IC4A title in less than three years, needed a spill by the Wildcat's Greg Govan in the 600-yd. run to take the meet. Govan was considered a certain point-scorer, and when he was eliminated, Villanova needed a first in the two-mile relay to take the title for a sixth year. They failed, finishing fourth.

The Quakers' total of 26, two more than Villanova's final point score, was the lowest winning total in seven years, with 12 teams garnering ten points or more. The talent was spread out rather evenly among the competing schools, with 11 different colleges winning individual events. Penn managed to win the meet with just a single first, by Tom Blair in the pole vault, while second-place Villanova also managed just one first. Penn State, Adelphi and Manhattan, by contrast, took two firsts each, but did not have the depth of Penn and Villanova.

Harvard, which usually sends small contingents, and as a result does not do particularly well in terms of the team title, did about as well as expected. Bob Clayton, who recorded the second fastest time in the semifinals of the 880-yd. run on Friday, had the best performance of the meet for Harvard, as he ran a good race to take third in the finals. His time of 1:52.2 was just .3 sec. slower than the winning time of Manhattan's John Lovett.

In the triple jump, Kevin Benjamin, who was ranked fourth in the event, jumped a good, but disappointing 47 ft. 2 in. to take sixth. Andris Bilmanis of Maryland won the event with a jump of 49 ft. 3 3/4 in.

Harvard's Dewey Hickman ran a 7.4 in the finals of the 60-yd. high hurdles to take fourth, rounding out the Crimson's scoring in the meet.

John Quirk, who had qualified for the finals in the mile, did not place in the race, and teammate Mark Connoly was eliminated in an earlier heat when he suffered a foot injury as a result of a push on a turn. Sprinter Baylee Reid did not survive the heats in the always tough 60-yd. dash.