Radcliffe Harriers Finish Strong Premiere Season

The rain came down in sheets and the entire team came down with colds, but in the bleak gloominess of an October Saturday in Providence a new era dawned for Radcliffe athletics when a pioneering women's cross-country team chalked up its first victory ever by finishing 1-2-3-4 against Brown.

The win was especially pleasant because it happened ten days after a drubbing by number two-ranked UMass and number four Brandeis in the first meet of the season.

Even more important, it provided the first opportunity for an inexperienced yet talented Radcliffe team struggling for varsity status to display its mettle.

But Zeus sent down sorrow as well as joy to the Crimson team that afternoon, as the same rain that blessed the Radcliffe win also fell on top gun Eleanor Apthorp, who was absent from the meet, with a severe case of the flu that kept her bedridden for the rest of the season. Briefly, the day symbolized the frustrating and rather shaky beginnings of Radcliffe's first cross-country season.

Low Point

A week later, with Carla Amble sidelined with a broken toe, the team's fortunes hit the skids again. In a tri-meet with Williams and Dartmouth, with only four women able to run, the team failed to register even a team score. The rules demand that five runners finish the race to count a team score, and the Dartmouth coach was unwilling to bend them.

"It was tough for us to go all the way to Dartmouth and run and not even have a team score to bring back," Coach Pappy Hunt said. "But I think it was this disappointment which inspired our performance in the GBC's, where everything came together."

Indeed. The team put it together in the Greater Boston Championships, taking first place with a 2-3 finish by Sarah Linsley and Kat Taylor. Following this meet was the teams' most dazzling performance of the season, in which the Crimson entered five runners in the Big Three meet and finished a spectacular 1-2-3-4-5, outrunning the best efforts of Princeton and Yale.

And then it was time to return to Dartmouth for a grudge match and the Ivy League Championships. "After the team score refusal by the Dartmouth coach, we had an unspoken commitment to come back and beat them," coach Hunt says. "We were definitely psyched to win that one," Kat Taylor agrees.

Only Angels Have Wings

So it came to pass. Radcliffe swept the inaugural women's Ivy Championships, as Linsley and Taylor ran in the top four with strong support from Carla Amble and captain Sarah Robinson, who came in seventh and eighth, respectively.

But the biggest battle has yet to be won for the redoubtable Radcliffe cross-country team. Designated at the moment as a level-two team, but with the benefits of a coach and limited financial support, the team is now seeking varsity status.

The varsity rating, which would mean more financial support and intangible benefits such as increased recognition by students and alumni, is presently under consideration by the Harvard Department of Athletics. Its recommendation to the Faculty Committee on Athletics of such a move is essential.

The decision will probably rest on whether the Department of Athletics uses quality or quantity as a criterion, Hunt said.

"Quality-wise we can't be beat--what do we do for an encore?" says Hunt. "But as far as quantity is concerned, I'd like to see double or triple the participation we have now," he adds.

Unlike other track and field teams, the cross-country focuses on one event, and the Radcliffe team's surplus talent has scared off less talented runners. "People of lesser caliber were discouraged by this factor when we held our early practices," Hunt says.

Sweats and Meals

Although the changeover to varsity status will considerably boost the team's prestige, team members tend to view the proposed switch in terms of the more practical advantages if offers.

"Being varsity will mean more of the 'little things,' like better sweats and more team meals," Kat Taylor says.

"I don't think the lack of varsity status has hurt us, but I think it will help the team as a whole, especially with recruiting," Sarah Linsley said. "Some parents of team members and interested alumni have formed 'Friends of Radcliffe Track' to help push the idea," she says.

Coach Hunt is optimistic about the team's chances for varsity designation. "Given the talent and enthusiasm of the girls we've got now, I'd say that the change is both imminent and inevitable," he says.