Tigers Run Down Crimson

One can't describe Saturday's Big Three Track Championships between Harvard, Princeton, and Yale as anything but a suspenseful fight to the wire.

When the running at the Gordon Indoor Track came to an end, Princeton, with 72 1/2 points, had beaten the Crimson men's track team by two points: Yale finished with 27.

Even after the first 15 events and almost five hours of tough competition, the outcome of the meet was not decided until the very last contest, the two-mile relay.

Before the last relay the scoreboard read Princeton 69 1/2, Harvard 65 1/2, and Yale, with no say in the matter, 27 points.

Rely on Relay

There were no two ways about it. The Crimson thinclads had to win this relay--Princeton couldn't be allowed to score any more points. Harvard desperately needed the relay victory and the consequent five points in order to stumble by the Tigers.

William Pate, the first Crimson runner, put Harvard in the lead, and teammate Paul O'Leary proved to be just as invincible as he handed off to Brad Bunney on the third leg Starting out modestly. Bunney burned his opponents on the last lap as he stretched out both his legs and Harvard's lead As a result, Steven Ezeji-Okoye could concentrate on sustaining the Crimson's lead with a brisk pace towards victory.

The problem was that Princeton came in second.

Sure, Harvard won the relay comfortably but, unfortunately, it had to rely on the Bulldogs to beat Princeton By placing second, the Tigers assembled another three points, which secured them a two point meet victory.

The loss was particularly frustrating because Harvard had competed so well from the very beginning of the meet--Thomas Schuler won the 35 lb weight with 57-ft. 10 in. Robert Gustafson high jumped into first place with 2 05 meters, and Rudy Buntic skyrocketed 4 64 meters to victory in the pole vault--that such a close defeat was a major disappointment.

Still, if Bunney and Ezeji-Okoye run like they did this past weekend next Saturday at the Heptagonals in Princeton. Harvard is guaranteed a shot at victory.

Bunney burst past all competition in both the 1500 and 800 meter races in 3 49 85 and 1 53 21 respectively, and Ezeji-Okoye, who fell in the 1500 meter race breezed by all his opponents in the 55 meter hurdle event with the time 7 62 seconds.

"I am dead to the world. But I don't think I have peaked yet," said an exhausted Bunney after races that promised even better times.

An upset Coach Frank Haggerty, who considered Ezeji-Okoye's fall case of pushing, said. Assuming that Steve [Ezeji-Okoye] would have placed second had he not fallen, we could have won the meet with one point in total.