Running Man

It is rare to award someone Athlete of the Week twice in four weeks, but sophomore running back Chris Menick did not give The Crimson much choice.

In Saturday's 52-24 win over Holy Cross, Menick exploded for the second-highest rushing total in school history. His 34 carries went for 261 yards, a 7.7 yard per carry average.

He also scored three touchdowns for the second week in a row, bringing his team-leading total to nine.

Menick has set a career-high in rushing three times this season. The second week against Lehigh, he ran 15 times for 121 yards. Two games ago against Cornell, he gained 144 yards on 29 rushes.

Last week's total may be less ephemeral. The only better yardage mark in Harvard history is Matt Johnson's '92 323 yards in 1991 against Brown, also the Ivy League record.

"Chris is a warrior," Harvard Coach Tim Murphy said. "The instinctive things and the intangibles in terms of how hard he plays are things that you can't understand until he plays a couple of games.

"The longer the game goes, the stronger he gets. He's got outstanding vision, and he's getting better."

By halftime on Saturday, Menick had already gained 122 yards despite only 11 carries. He then scored three touchdowns in a span of 8:57 to give Harvard the second-half kick it needed to put a pesky Holy Cross team away.

On the drive which Menick scored his first touchdown on, he gained 66 of the Crimson's 67 yards on five rushes. He hit paydirt on a 15-yard run to end that drive and also scored from one and 10 yards out.