Acorn, Bullard Voted Soccer Captains

Harvard's soccer team yesterday elected juniors Dave Acorn and Lyman Bullard as 1976 co-captains. Acorn, this year's high scorer, and Bullard, last year's scoring leader, were the two top vote-getters in a secret ballot vote conducted by the players and the team manager.

The team also named one of this year's co-captains, fullback Geoff Hargadon, as the senior player with the most exemplary qualities.

Coach George Ford's squad will lost five graduating players next year, but players from the varsity bench, the JV team and the freshman team should fill in the vacancies.

"I think we've got some great replacements coming through," coach George Ford said yesterday, "and I'm really looking forward to next season, especially with these two guys [as captains]. It was a good choice."

Looking at other Ivy League sporting news, Brown and Cornell tied for the title, after the Bruins' 6-3 win over Columbia and the Big Red's 3-1 loss to Penn Saturday left them with identical 5-2 records. Brown and Cornell both qualified for the NCAA playoffs, which open this week.

Led by Laurie Downey's three individual wins, the Radcliffe swimming team drowned the University of Rhode Island women 81-49 Saturday at URI, taking first place in 13 or 15 events.

Downey opened her stellar performance with a five-second margin of victory in the 100 yd. IM with a 1:06.8. She then set a team record with a 27.0 second 50 yd. freestyle. Downey finished by taking the 100 yd. freestyle in 59.0 seconds and participating on the winning 200 yd. freestyle relay team.

But Downey was not the only star of the day. 'Cliffe captain Maureen Murphy won two individual events and a relay, Carol Moore took two individuals and two relays, and Reed Sutherland swept two individuals and a relay.

Although the Radcliffe swim team made waves Saturday at URI, the Harvard cross country team did not even make a ripple in the outcome of yesterday's NCAA championships at Penn State.

The reason was not a lackluster performance--the athletic department simply refused to send the harriers, despite their qualifying performance at the IC4A meet November 16.

Freshman Pete Fitzsimmons, an All-Ivy choice who finished 30th at the IC4As, explained yesterday that the department decided not to send the team because they thought "we really weren't going to challenge, so they couldn't afford to send us."

Team captain Bill Okerman said yesterday the decision disappointed him because "even though we didn't have that great a season, we did technically qualify for the meet, and another bad thing was that they wouldn't send Fitzsimmons."

Okerman also warned that the move might set a precedent for other sports, such as track, since it was "a purely subjective decision on the part of the athletic department on whether or not the team would go."