Huskies Outpace Harvard As Crimson Runs Strong

Despite an encouraging team effort, the Harvard cross country team suffered its fourth defeat of the season Saturday at the hands of an overpowering Northeastern squad, 25-30.

In an impressive run that closely paralleled the results of last Tuesday's Greater Boston Championships (GBC) meet, Huskie top guns Bob Flora, Bruce Bickford and John Flora ran one-two-three for an unusual 24:16 dead-heat finish.

Running hard behind the three leaders were the top five Crimson harriers, who raced past the finish line with only 46 seconds between them.

Jeff Campbell at 24:32 was the first Harvard runner to cross the line, followed closely by sophomore Peter Fitzsimmons at 24:43.

Reed Eichner placed sixth in the race, with a time of 25:00, followed 17 seconds later by Mark Meyer, and then by sophomore Rockwell Moulton, who came in eighth at 25:18.

Other Crimson runners were sophomore Ed Sheehan, number 11 at 26:02, number 12 Chuck Ferrell at 26:04, and Brian Dunn, who came in fourteenth at 26:31.

Even Race

"It was an evenly run race," said coach Bill McCurdy, who missed the meet due to an illness. "The race was a rerun of the GBC except that we respond better as a team," he said.

The same Flora-Flora-Bickford combination ran one-two-three in the GBC meet, dashing Harvard's first place hopes. "They've been making life miserable for us for a long time," McCurdy said.

Radcliffe track coach Pappy Hunt, who subbed for McCurdy at Saturday's meet, was impressed with the team's performance. "Teamwise, we ran a better race than in the GBC," he said.

"The closeness of our top five finishes was an indication of a great team performance," Hunt said. "It's just too bad that we have to run against that kind of iron," he added, referring to the Northeastern top trio.

Fast Pace

The pace of Saturday's meet was especially quick, with a fast, wind-aided 4:25 first mile, and an unusually torrid second mile time of 9:09.

The junior varsity, with Harvard runner Dave Sullivan placing second, upset the Northeastern Harriers, 24-37, in what coach Hunt described as "a tactically superb race."

"The J.V. ran a good, sound speed race," Hunt said. "This was their second win this season and it looked very encouraging," he added.

Coach McCurdy expressed optimism about the team's chances in the upcoming Big Three meet with Princeton and Yale on Friday. "Princeton was favored, but they don't look as good as they did at the beginning of the season," he said.

"We've got an unusually good team, but we've also got the damned misfortune of running against some really outstanding teams," McCurdy added.