Northeastern Edges Harvard And Wins GBC Track Title

How does it feel to lose when you might have won if things had gone a little differently? You might ask that of Harvard track coach Bill McCurdy after the Crimson faltered in the stretch and lost to Northeastern. 94 1/2 to 91 1/2 in Sunday's Greater Boston Championships.

"We've found those three points in about half a dozen places, but not when we needed them." McCurdy said yesterday. "I guess it is all part of the game."

Harvard, which had built an early lead on the strength of an outstanding effort in the field events, was unable to make it stand up as the Huskies surged back in the running events, and slowly the Crimson lead evaporated. As expected, the Huskies' running depth coupled with Harvard's lack of depth in the distances, largely determined the outcome of the meet.

But at the start of the afternoon's competition on Boston College's tartan track, it appeared as if a Crimson upset was taking shape. The Harvard sprint relay team upset favored Northeastern, and when the Crimson took 1-2 in the hammer, 2-3 in the javelin, an unexpected 2-4 in the pole vault, a 2-4 in the shot and firsts in the long and triple jumps, the picture for Harvard looked bright. Particularly satisfying were Vincent Vanderpoole-Wallace's new meet record of 23'6" in the long jump and Kevin Benjamin's winning triple jump. Benjamin established himself as one of the top triple jumpers in the East with a record-shattering jump of 49 ft. 9 3/4 in

Harvard's success continued in the sprints. Austin O'Conner took a close second to BC's Don Schneider in the 100, while teammates Bud Wilson and Baylee Reid captured the next two places. In the 220, Reid ran a strong race, placing third, with Wilson taking fifth.

But the Crimson's lack of depth began to take its toll as the running continued, as Harvard had only one strong entry in many of the distance races. Both Nick Leone and Bob Clayton, in the quarter and half respectively, "ran out of gas," McCurdy said; Leone placed third, Clayton fourth. Bob Seals ran well in the mile, but was outkicked and settled for third. Mike Koerner took a second in the six mile, as did Fred Linsk in the three, but Northeastern, placing 3-5 in the six and 1-3 in the three, outscored the Crimson and took over the lead. "The three mile put them out of reach," McCurdy said yesterday. "Our distances were declmated, we just weren't able to produce any depth."