Harriers Drop Battle of Unprepareds, As Northeastern Captures First Meet

It was a case of "we were more not-ready than they were" according to Crimson cross-country coach Bill McCurdy yesterday, as his harriers dropped the season opener 26-30 to Northeastern in Franklin Park.

The Harvard runners have been for the most part plagued with injury during training and have not yet gotten into top condition. But the Huskies have also had a tough time this fall and could only manage to field six runners to open the 1974 schedule. And those six were less "not-ready" than the Crimson contingent.

The bright spot of the afternoon, however, was the superb race turned in by senior Jim Keefe. The Crimson captain locked horns with Northeastern's top man Mike Buckley until the last mile, when Keefe pulled away to take first place with a time of 24:14.

Behind Keefe, the Huskies dogged it in with the second (Buckley), third and fourth finishers. A pair of freshman twins, Bob and John Flora, crossed the line ahead of Harvard's Bill Muller.

Defoliation

The Floras dueled Muller most of the way, but bloomed in the first stages of the fifth mile to leave Muller finishing fifth. "If I had had some of that weed spray," McCurdy said of the Flora twins, "I would have sprayed it on them."

Bill Okerman turned in one of the pleasantly surprising races of the day for McCurdy, coming in sixth despite a knee problem that has bothered him in training. Following Okerman, Harvard's Stein Rafto, a freshman, took seventh.

"My hopes were high when Rafto finished,"McCurdy said, "but I had been out on the course and suspected what was coming." What came was three more Huskies, Howie Scribner, Ken Graham and Dan Paul. "Those three sealed our doom," McCurdy lamented.

Harvard had the rest of the finishers, with Brian Dunn and Tom Phillips the fifth and sixth Harvard runners to cross the line. Although sophomore Jeff Campbell was back in the pack at fifteenth, McCurdy was encouraged with his performance coming off knee and Achilles tendon injuries.

"In a way," the coach commented, "he was the key to the meet. If he had been in shape and running near the top it would have been a different meet."

The Crimson harriers had the meet seemingly in hand going into the fourth mile, holding a slim 27-28 lead. But although Keefe was able to overtake Buckley, the Floras were also able to move up and capture several places.

"I came away feeling we should have won it," McCurdy said; "I was pleased with the effort."