Crimson Harriers Squeak by UMass, Providence

The so-called "invincible Irishmen" from Providence College can return to the Rhode Island capital and have a good old Irish wake today--for yesterday the Crimson harriers laid to rest any hopes Providence might have entertained about going unbeaten in New England. Harvard downed the Friars and a tough UMass squad in yesterday's dual meet at Franklin Park. The combined scores were: Harvard 37; UMass 39; and Providence 57.

Though there weren't throngs of excited fans shouting "We're number one" as the Crimson team crossed the finish, the victories yesterday, combined with the trouncing of pre-season favorite Northeastern, establishes Harvard as the top team in New England. "If they don't vote us number one," Coach McCurdy said yesterday, "I'm going to start my own Watergate investigation."

Despite the boasts of the Irish, it was the UMass Minutemen that gave the Crimson the most serious competition, jumping out to a strong start. Harvard just edged UMass 27-30 in dual meet scoring while knocking off the Friars by a 23-38 count. Though Providence was touted as having more depth than the Minutemen, they managed to place just two runners in the top fifteen.

Of course it was Captain Ric Rojas who led the Crimson, leading most of the race and finishing at 26:12, a full 21 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Tom Smith of Providence, and just six seconds off his own course record. Rojas clearly established himself as the top runner in New England and a very strong threat in the East.

UMass copped the third and fifth spots as premier Minutemen runners and co-captains, Bill Gillan and Randy Thomas, sandwiched number four man Mike O'Shea of Providence. Harvard runners then came on strong to take six of the next eight spots, enough to edge out UMass in the dual-meet scoring.

Jim Keefe, who felt a bit under the weather before the meet, finished sixth with a time of 27:07, followed by Dirk Skinner at 27:11. Tom Maguire and Paul Segersten of UMass were eighth and ninth.

The story of the meet, however, was not all Rojas, but the Crimson depth that enabled them to grab the tenth through thirteenth places. These four spots shut out the number five man from UMass, Paul Broughtom. Had he been able to finish ahead of Harvard's Karl Tsigdines, Andy Cambell, Jim Hughes and Jeff Brokaw, the meet might have gone to the Minutemen.

Ratings

Although Providence and UMass were rated three and four in the pre-season polls, below Harvard, McCurdy was expecting the two teams to be a lot stronger than the rankings indicated. Indeed, UMass proved to be better than number four, but the Friars were somewhat a disappointment. Philip Campbell, reputed to be the Irish senior cross-country champion, was not to be found in the varsity competition, but ran in the earlier J.V. race. John Savoie, another PC star, finished way back in the number sixteen position.

"Pre-meet-wise," McCurdy said, "we thought Providence was the team to beat. But it turned out that UMass was the tiger." Obviously, McCurdy was happy with the outcome. "I'm still trying to recover," he said. "It was as close a meet as you want to be in. But I'm pleased as anything; there's nothing more fun than coming out of a meet like that on top."

McCurdy was particularly impressed with the "gutsy" performances of Keefe and Cambell, and the improvement of Tsigdinos. Cambell ran with a sore ankel while Keefe was suffering a cold, which takes a lot out of a runner.

Tsigdinos, however, was the big surprise as he finished tenth with a time of 27:26, a minute better than his time against Northeastern last week. "He was the one that belted out of the blue and really made the difference," McCurdy said.