'The Herd' Tramples Northeastern, 23-33

The Harvard men's cross country team returned from Franklin Park Saturday just as the football game got under way. As the bus pulled up to Dillon Field House the jubilant harriers banged on the windows and made faces at the fans filing by.

"I've never seen such enthusiasm before," captain Mark Meyer said, "People were just going crazy."

The reason for the zaniness was simple--for the first time in the college careers of any of the current team members, Harvard had defeated the Huskies of Northeastern, taking the season opener, 23-33.

Meyer led the effort by finishing a strong second behind Northeastern's All-America Bruce Bickford, as the men from Cambridge captured five of the top seven slots.

Bickford smashed his own 10,000-meter course record, crossing the tape in 29:17.2. Meyer stayed apace through most of course, running an incredible race to finish in a personal best time of 29:39.3. Fellow senior Ed Sheehan ran home third, beating out Huskie Jim Doane in the last quarter-mile.

Reed Eichner, Peter Fitzsimmons and John Murphy followed the leaders home in the fifth, sixth, and seventh places, respectively, to round out the Crimson scoring.

The race began under perfect conditions in Jamaica Plain, with a cloudless sky and temperatures in 60s.

Meyer, Sheehan, Murphy and Bickford ran together through the first two miles, before Meyer picked up the pace and Bickford followed him out ahead of the pack. At the three-mile mark, though, the fleetfooted Bickford made his move and opened up a 30-yard lead.

By the half-way point the outcome of the meet was no longer in question. The Crimson runners were sitting pretty and everyone knew it. Northeastern's graduated Flora twins, who watched this contest from the sidelines, could only shake their heads and mutter obscenities. The Huskies needed more than their moral support to pull out this one.

The nasty hill at four miles spread the field out even more. Meyer, running hard uphill, left Sheehan and Doane behind to battle for the third position.

Throughout the race, Doane made up ground on the hills, while Sheehan pulled even on the flats. "I was discouraged that I couldn't pull away from him," Sheehan said afterward. "I finally sprinted ahead of him at the six-mile mark and increased my lead to seven seconds in the last quarter-mile."

But while Sheehan's fine showing was to be expected, Meyer's was a pleasant surprise.

"I knew I would be in it, but I didn't expect to be setting the pace through the first half of the race," Meyer said. "It was a real strange feeling; I didn't know if I was going the right speed."

The team's performance is especially impressive since two potential scorers did not even compete. In addition to Thad McNulty's withdrawal due to illness, Rocky Moulton did not run because of academic conflict.

The junior varsity squad also downed Northeastern (29-34), giving the Crimson a double victory. Freshman Peter Johnson and John Sneath, along with junior Dan Rebuzzi, led the way.

"The Herdtramples Northeastern, now that has a real ring to it," Meyer said. "We're tired of being called thinclads and harriers. After all, what's a harrier?"

Merrill Lynch, eat your heart out.

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS

1. Bickford (N) 29:17.2

2. Meyer (H) 29:39.3

3. Sheehan (H) 29:53.1

4. Doane (N) 30:00.5

5. Eichner (H) 30:14.3

6. Fitzsimmons (H) 30:41.3

7. Murphy (H) 31:05.9

8. Richard (N) 31:21.5

9. Fowler (N) 31:22.1

10. Scidmore (H) 31:33.3

11. McGuire (N) 31:36.9

12. Nevolis (N) 32:04.1

13. Chaffee (H) 32:06.1

14. McRoskey (H) 33:11.2

15. Cullinane (N) 34:20.4