Men's Track Loses Dual With Bulldogs

Losing to Yale is never a pleasurable experience for a Harvard team, but in the case of the Crimson's men's track team this weekend, it was made at least little more bearable by topnotch individual performances,

The Crimson was defeated by the Bulldogs, 90-73, but afterwards, captain Pete McConnon and company were looking on the bright side of things.

"It was disappointing to lose, but we had some strong individual performances," McConnon said. "A lot of people did really well."

"On paper we still think that we're as good of a team as they are, but I think it was a relatively good effort overall,' sophomore Ben Bowen said. "We were sort of unlucky in a couple of events."

Going into the race, the team thought that it would have a good chance of beating Yale. A few days before the meet, one of the Crimson coaches compared the Yale and Harvard line-ups and concluded that the Bulldogs would only win by five points.

That prognostication began to look more and more erroneous as the day went on, however, as the team was beset by a number of problems.

A number of athletes did not place as expected, and two favored winners--senior Dave Anderson in the hammer and sophomore Shayne Mauricette in the 200--were disqualified.

"We met a little hard luck that probably kept us from finishing closer to them," McConnon said.

The Crimson still managed to garner a number of first-, second- and third-place finishes.

Finishing first for Harvard were senior Todd Dawson in the shot put; Bown in the 800-meter run; Mauricette in the 100; freshman Ian Carswell in the 1500; Anderson in the discus; and junior Dan Dusak in the javelin.

"It was a really good effort--we shouldn't be ashamed of anything," Bowen said.

The Crimson will next take part in a dual with Northeastern this weekend, and then will participate in Heptagonals at Columbia May 7-8.

"HEPS is what we're gearing for individually and team-wise," McConnon said. "That is the highlight of our season."