Thinclads Storm Past Hapless Bruins in Opener

Dominating the distance events and scoring surprisingly well in the sprints and jumps, the Crimson track team overwhelmed an almost non-existent Brown squad, 86-48, in its season opener Saturday at the ITT.

Despite the lopsided score and a few pleasant surprises, the meet did little to dispel the doubts that linger around Harvard's chances in many of the events.

"I think we still have the same sort of question marks," Crimson coach Bill McCurdy said after the meet. "Their [Brown's] weaknesses complemented our weaknesses remarkably. If I had sent down a blueprint, we couldn't have done any better."

The surprises came from people like long jumper Jim Johnson, triple jumper Shawn Hall, sprinter Marc Chapus and hurdler Chuck Johnson, all of whom won their events. These fine performances, added to the customary superb distance running from All-Americans Thad McNulty, John Murphy and Adam Dixon, as well as Noel Scidmore, Peter Johnson and others, to provide the Crimson with the win.

In addition, the thinclads earned points in events other opponents would have swept. Despite not producing a pole vault over 12-ft., 6-in., the Crimson captured second and third as the Bruins could offer only one vault better.

Little Leap

In the high jump, Brown's Chris Vellturo copped first with a paltry leap of six feet even; Harvard nabbed the two remaining spots, earning points for a jump as low as 5-ft. 8-in.

On the other hand, the Crimson stars had an easy day. Murphy and McNulty each ran only once, and the crack relay quartets were dissembled in favor of a hodge-podge of lesser runners. Only Dixon, who won the 600 and the 1000 and ran in the mile relay, had a full day's work; and he was not pressed in either of his victories.

In the middle distances, the tracksters easily won every event and exhibited a number of solid runners who snared seconds and thirds. Halfway through the meet it became clear that the Bruins owned few runners capable of challenging even the second-echelon Crimson entrants, as the thinclads claimed at least a second in each of the first eight events, winning six and sweeping two.

Scidmore, Ryan Lamppa, Bob Higgins, Brian McAndrews and David Frim each turned in fine middle-distance performances. Frim won the 440 and Scidmore took the 880, as well as placing second to McNulty in the mile. The most exciting moment of the day belonged to McAndrews, who held off Brown's David DiGiovanni with a lunge at the tape to grab second in the 600.

In the two-mile, Eric Schuler and Bruce Weber placed second and third behind Murphy to engineer the fourth Crimson sweep of the day in the final individual event.

The Heavies

Only in the weight events did Brown excel, and not unexpectedly. The Bruins won both, although Harvard placed second and third in the 35-lb. throw and third in the shot, enabling the Crimson to score points in every event.

Other point-scoring field performances came from Gus Udo and Ben Midlo (second and third in the long jump, respectively) and Bill Shea, who took third in the triple jump.