Winter Carnival Just No Fun; Green Monster Eats Thinclads

"The Dean of Dartmouth College wishes to remind students that the Carnival is an event for the Dartmouth Community and its invited guests only. Students arriving in Hanover without a local host will not be accomodated and cannot expect access to parties and sleeping spaces."--Dartmouth Dean of Students in a letter to various colleges, as printed in Harvard's OCS newsletter.

While the Dean's warning implied that invited guests would be welcomed at this weekend's events in Hanover, the Harvard and Brown track squads discovered such was not exactly the case. Big Green athletes made Saturday's meet a one-team carnival, winning both the men's and the women's competitions by surprisingly convincing margins.

Harvard's men finished in third place with 43 points, behind Dartmouth (75) and Brown (52). The Crimson women fared better, though, finishing 15 points behind Dartmouth but nosing out Brown by one-half point for second place.

The meet was full of unpleasant surprises for the men, who figured to finish closer to the pace--if not as the pace-setters themselves. "If people had performed as we expected," Assistant Coach Ed Sheehan said, "it looked to be a one- or two-point meet."

But for a variety of reasons, Crimson thinclads didn't perform as expected and the one- or two-point meet became a Dartmouth runaway.

Sheehan attributed the lopsided results to "injuries, sickness, and a few sub-par performances," while Co-Captain Doug Boyd cited Harvard's early-morning road trip.

"Not to make excuses, but we were a little flat coming up from Boston," Boyd said. "It's always a tough meet for the [visiting] team. Last year [when Dartmouth came to Harvard] it was supposed to be close and we beat them by 30 points."

For these--and undoubtedly other--reasons, the Crimson ended up with "a lot of weak events," according to Boyd. But while Harvard performed poorly on the day, several athletes came up with strong performances.

As usual, the middle and longer distances were good events for the men. Paul Kent won the 1500 (with a personal best time) and 800 meters, Cliff Sheehan took the 3000 meters, and Mark Foley established a personal best in the 1000, finishing second to Dartmouth's John McRight.

For the Crimson women, however, it was a meet of pleasant surprises. High jumper Erin Sugrue said, "Everybody ran well. We picked up a lot of points we didn't think we'd get."

One event in which Harvard grabbed unanticipated points was the 60-yd. dash. At last week's GBC's, Crimson runners managed only third-and fifth-place finishes. But at Dartmouth, three sprinters--Theresa Moore, Carol Kirton, and Bamidele Favemi--made it to the finals.