1978 Crimson Track Preview:

In all likelihood, the 1978 Harvard track team will take longer to learn the new metric measures than it will to find its own identity. In fact, after this afternoon's meet, Crimson coaches Bill McCurdy and Ed Stowell should have a fair idea of what this spring will bring for the trackmen.

The season is amazingly short, and Harvard, which will adopt metric measurements in its home stadium for the first time, wastes no time getting into the thick of things. The team opens today at 1:30 p.m. in the stadium against powerhouse Northeastern. Add this all-out war to Saturday's meeting with the Tigers, in Princeton, and before the season is a week old. Harvard will have run its two toughest dual meets of the season.

The Crimson has no time to spare getting in stride for the season. Like the dash, the spring season is an all-out race from the gun. But while Harvard sits in the blocks, the only word you can use to describe this team is "maybe."

In the sprint events, Harvard may have a tough time recovering from the loss of graduated super-sprinter Todd Hooks. "I'm not sure if you can replace a guy like Hooks. You just try to strengthen the whole team to make up for the loss," Stowell said.

He and McCurdy have four solid sprinters in football running backs Ralph Polillio and Wayne Moore; last year's leadoff relay man. Joe Salvo; and junior John Jakenfelds. However, that quartet does not contain an explosive runner like Hooks.

In the middle-distance groups, the Harvard picture breaks into two divisions. At the 400-meter level, there are again no standouts, with Ryan Lamppa, Chris Nicodemus, Brian MacAndrews, Dave Frim, and possibly Gary Schmidt all striding into what Stowell described as a "muddled" picture.

Stronger Every Day

Strength grows, though, at the 800-meter plateau with the return of last year's Heptagonal champ, John Chafee, and consistently strong Scott Dolson.

It is the long-distance category, though, that looms as the most questionable Harvard area. At 1500-meters. Thad McNulty and John Murphy should produce some good results, but at 5000-meters, Ed Sheehan's ability to produce is uncertain. Sheehan could add some power, but he had not regained his form of the early indoor season since battling a mid-season illness. Reed Eichner and Brian Finn will carry the Crimson through the steeplechase; but because this is the first time Harvard will run the event steadily, no one expects miraculous results.

The hurdles, like many of the field events, should help Harvard. Co-captain Paul Organ is strong in the 110-meter highs, and he joins three other runners in the 400-meter lows to give Harvard some depth.

Like last year, though, the field events look to be the big point scorers for Harvard. Co-captain Dan Sullivan will soar in the high jump, multi-champion Geoff Stiles should continue to dominate the pole vault, and Sola Mahoney and Hasan Kayali have shown strength in the triple and long jump pits.

The hammer, shotput, discus, and javelin events are likely Harvard powerhouses. Ed Ajootian, coming off a good indoor season, should fare will with the hammer, while Joe Pelligrini, throwing 167-ft. plus, will power the discus event. Chris Queen leads a shotput threesome, and a potentially strong duo of Dave Kinney and Mike Stewart will work the javelin.

With power in the throwing events and the jumps, and the potential for strength in the sprints and hurdles, the Harvard season could be a promising one. But many of the possible strong points are still speculation.

Perhaps Stowell best described the shaky stature of this year's track picture when he said, "We're optimistic without knowing where we really are."