Harriers Take Eastern Title

The Harvard women's cross country team solidified its preeminent place in New England Saturday, outrunning and outclassing ten other colleges to take the Eastern AIAW Championships at Green Hill Golf Course in Worcester by a comfortable margin of 53 points.

Led by freshman phenom Kate Wiley, who loped to a first-place finish and a course record in 17:39.2, the Crimson runners totally dominated the scoring with four of their seven competitors placing in the top ten, and the other three finishing 39th or better in the field of 75 runners.

I Think I Can...

Wiley, whose greatest strength lies in her uphill running ability, took advantage of the demanding course's numerous inclines to establish an early lead by the 1 1/2 mile mark. By the two-mile point, she led a small pack of frontrunners by 15 to 20 yards--a lead she relinquished with only one-half mile to go to Debbie Seeger of Rutgers.

But Wiley--displaying the fierce tenacity and aggressiveness that have characterized her running all season--overtook Seeger on the last uphill and then poured it on in the last 500 yards to edge Seeger by 4.5 seconds.

"I didn't feel that good during the race--I felt really sluggish," Wiley said afterwards. "I liked the course a lot, though. All of those hills were like the ones I run at home--I'm also a little bit tired of running at Franklin Park all the time."

Good Things...

"Kate put together a neat little package," head coach John Babington said after the race. "She combined skillful execution, good form, and execution, good form, and excellent technique. It was very pleasing to watch," he added happily.

Not about to be overshadowed by Wiley, junior Darlene Beckford ran her best race of the season, finishing third with a time of 17:51.4. Starting from about 15th place, Beckford picked up her pace towards the end of the race and passed numerous runners to finish higher than she has all season and in previous Eastern Championship appearances.

"Darlene had the best finish of all the Harvard girls," Babington commented. "She put things together, buckled down and then came through to show just how talented she is."

Also finishing in the top ten for Harvard were freshmen Jenny Stricker (sixth, 18:02.7) and senior captain Kristen Linsley (eighth, 18:13.9). Stricker, who won last week's Ivy Championships, ran well despite missing some workouts due to schoolwork last week.

"Jenny ran a brilliant race at the Ivies, and I don't think she had quite recovered from it," Babington said. "And we can't expect our girls to run brilliantly week after week," he added.

Also competing for Harvard were freshman Mary-Jeanne Barrett (18th, 18:45.0), senior Mary Herlihy (22nd, 18:53.8) and freshman Kathy Goode (39th, 19:25.6).

Bad Losers

The team--which has not dropped a single contest all year--now has piled up six wins, not to mention the Greater Boston, Ivy and Eastern laurels. The team's finish among the top three Saturday earned it a spot in the national AIAW Championships in Pocotello, Idaho, on November 21, where at least two or three team embers stand a chance of earning All-American honors by finishing in the top 25.