Army Has a Field Day With Harriers

It was no field day for the Harvard men's track team, as the Crimson managed just 15 1/2 points in field events when it tell to Army, 78 1/2 to 57 1/2 in its season opener Saturday at the ITT.

Junior Steve Ezeji-Okoye led all Harvard runners, chalking up victories in the 55 meter hurdles and the 500-meter run and anchoring the successful Crimson mile relay.

Harvard held a 42-40 advantage in running points, a lead squad members said could have been larger if the team had focused on winning the meet Instead of easing practices Friday and having his runners compete in multiple events in pursuit of extra points, Crimson Coach Frank Haggerty decided to concentrate on long-range goals.

Our attitude was to train through the meet," Haggerty said Saturday Pre season training has already paid off for sophomore Rudy Bontic, whose 16 ft, 0-in pole vault gained him Harvard's only first place finish in a field event Bontic's goal is still 18 inches away; he wants to clear 17-ft, 6-in and qualify for the Canadian Olympic team.

Harvard's Steve Pinney took second in the pole vault with a personal best of 15-ft, 0-in.

"It's a good sign when they're vaulting better at the beginning of this season than at the end of last season," Haggerty said.

But most of the good signs were in the running events. Junior John Perkins and sophomore Paul Kent went one-two for Harvard in the opening race, the 1500 meters. Paul McNulty almost held third for a Crimson sweep, but Army's Phil Williams edged him out at the line. Thirty-one hundredths of a second separated the top three finishers.

Senior Captain Brad Bunney blew away his Cadet opponents in the bell lap of the 800 meters and broke the tape with a time of 1:51 25, a second and a half ahead of his nearest follower.

Things were considerably closer in the 55-meter dash, where the Crimson's Vincent Ho nipped Army's Rob Scott, 6 71 to 6 72 seconds.

The Crimson was not quite as successful in the longer distance events, the 1000 and the 3000 meters. Senior Felix Rippy battled a pair of Army runners throughout the entire 1000, but could only claim third. In the 3000, Peter Jelley and Jim MacDonald caught three Army runners in the last few laps. Jelley and Army runner David Fleece jockeyed for the lead a number of times in the last two laps, but Fleece eventually pulled away to win in 8:24.3, with Jelley and MacDonald placing second and third respectively.

Despite the loss, Haggerty and his team were optimistic about their season prospects. Before last year's Heptagonal championship the Crimson fell at Army by a virtually identical score, 57-79, in the third meet of the season.

A better measure of this year's team may come Saturday, when Harvard hosts B.C., a team it thumped, 84-52, last season.