Huskies Jinx Trackmen As Crimson Runs Strong

The name Northeastern has a detestable ring to it, like the name of some long forgotten curse for the Harvard track team. Yesterday the Northeastern whammy was in perfect working condition as the Harvard team came out on the short end of an 81-73 loss, after being shaven by a double-edge blade named Flora.

"John and Bob Flora have caused me a few bad dreams this year. I've often wished that they would just go away and leave me alone and that, unfortunately, is exactly what they did," Coach Bill McCurdy said after the meet. He was referring to the fact that those two top Northeastern runners along with teammate Bob Bickford ran away and hid from the rest of the pack on their way to a 1-2-3 finish in the three-mile event.

Despite the Northeastern sweep in the distance event, the Harvard team turned in an impressive series of performances, including four meet record-breakers, in an attempt to stem the Huskie charge.

Take tri-captain Todd Hooks, for example. Yesterday he was Harvard's version of the Six Million Dollar Man. In the early events of the afternoon, Hooks blazed to a meet record finish in the sprint relay along with teammates Joe Salvo, Len Reynolds and Ralph Polillio. But Hooks later took a hard tumble on the last hurdle of the highs as Paul Organ set another meet record.

First the bad news. Hooks suffered a badly scraped shoulder, knee, and a cut on the hand. Now the good. Hooks then made tracks out of the infirmary, covered with antiseptic, and bolted to a first place finish in the 100- and 220- yard events. "I knew I wasn't going to be sore until tonight, and I just didn't feel like sitting around," Hooks said later.

Senior tri-captain Jeff Campbell was responsible for the third Harvard meet record as he burned his way to a first place finish in the mile event, just ahead of the deadly Flora-Bickford combination. Joe Pellegrini grabbed the fourth meet mark with a mighty heave of the discus.

The other meet results were a mixed bag, attesting to the keen competition displayed by both sides. Geoff Stiles nabbed a third place Crimson finish in the pole vault, and Harvard only managed to eke out second and third place showings in the hammer and weight throw events respectively.

Stronger Crimson suits were the long jumps and javelin, both of which Harvard swept, and the triple jump, in which they finished second and third.