Inside Spring Trips

Like ships that pass in the night, the two Crimson outdoor track teams are headed in different directions. The Harvard team, stricken by injuries and decimated by graduation, will limp through the spring in a struggle to measure up to last year's luminous 8-0 record. But for the Radcliffe squad, a rosy outlook is a bit clouded; with this year's talent turnout, last year's dismal 1-5 record should be avenged--but to what extent?

For the Harvards, this season is shaping up as a holding pattern. With much of last year's talent lost to the real world, coach Bill McCurdy will be looking for extraordinary efforts from what extraordinary talent remains.

The weak spots will come in the running department, particularly the middle distance events. The main problem is depth. Tri-captain Jeff Campbell, who led the cross-country team to victory in the IC4As last fall, will be handling most of the middle distance chores, along with sophomore John Chafee; but there's hardly anyone else who looks strong here thus far.

The distance running may suffer from the same lack of depth, but here again McCurdy has a solid core of former cross-country runners to build around. The big guns here should be freshmen Tad McNulty and Reed Eichner, who have been running strong in practices all along.

On the injured list are Pete Fitzsimmons and Stein Rafto, whose return would spark a big boost in the Crimson performance.

In the other running events, time will be the test. There are some gaps in the sprints and hurdles, and great emphasis has been put on plugging them in the pre-season practices. But the times are still hovering above the 50 second mark in the quarter-mile sprints.

Tomorrow the team flies to Orlando for a ten-day orgy of exercise. Last year three meets were included in the spring trip schedule; but this year, faced with encounters with powerhouses Princeton and Northeastern in the first week of the season, the coach decided to revert to the old McCurdy method of continuous, unrelenting training.

Two-a-days will be the rule. In the morning, the entire team will break loose for an hour of running. The afternoon practices will be devoted to technique, broken down into individual events. Released from the nauseating confines of Briggs Cage, the field athletes and outdoor runners will have the chance to strut their stuff.

Strong points in the field events look to be sophomore Dave Kinney in the javelin and Joe Pellegrini and Chris Queenan in the discus. Tom McDivitt will be supporting veteran hammer hurler Ed Ajootian in that event.

Radcliffe on the Run

As for Radcliffe, coach Pappy Hunt says that improvement is inevitable, but uncertain. "The competition in women's track is the unknown factor," he said. "We know that the state schools are the powerhouses in this sport, but we haven't been around long enough to predict where the real challenge will come from."

But Hunt isn't making it any easier for the enemy, either. "They figure that they've got us beat already, but they're dead wrong," he said. "We've been starting the psychological warfare bit by singing the blues to the other coaches, but I think they're in for quite a surprise."

Indeed, if numbers are any indication, Pappy Hunt may not have to rely on cunning to advance the Radcliffe cause this spring. A host of new athletes, the majority of whom are freshmen and sophomores, have sprung out of the air to bolster the sagging record of last year's squad.

"We've improved 100 per cent talent-wise," says Hunt. "We may not win every meet, but we're going to be as competitive as hell in every single one."

HARVARD TRACK AND FIELD SCHEDULE

APRIL

Sat. 16, PRINCETON

Tue. 19, NORTHEASTERN

Sat. 23, at Dartmouth, Brown

Tue. 26, at Yale

Sat. 30, Penn Relays at Philadelphia

MAY

Mon. 2, Greater Boston Championships at Boston College

Sat. 7, Heptagonals at Philadelphia

Tue. 10, ARMY

Fri. 21, IC4As at Philadelphia