Coming off last week's dumping of Northeastern from the top-ranked position in New England, the Harvard cross country team faces today what promises to be two better teams in Providence and the University of Massachusetts, despite their lower rankings.

Rumors have been floating up on the grapevine from Rhode Island about Providence, surely the mystery team of the year. There have been tales of invincible Irishmen and enough depth on the bench to swamp their opponents.

Aside from their top man back from last year. Tom Smith, the Friars have added a top line Irish duo O'Shea and Campbell to its squad. Number two man O'Shea is reputed to be a 4:02 miler and the other import, Campbell, is reported to be the Irish senior cross country champion.

Add a freshman standout and former New England schoolboy champ Savoi, and instead of the usual cross country team featuring a couple good men and a second line of scorers, you have a squad with four top men.

"In a meet against B.C., a bunch of their good runners ran J.V. (including Savoi and Campbell) and four of them tied for first," coach Bill McCurdy said. "I can't figure if they were horsing around or what."

"With all the potential Providence has it is surprising that they were rated only number three in the pre-season New England polls. Probably when the votes were sent in, they didn't know about O'Shea and Campbell, even if they did know about Savoi," McCurdy said.

Ranked fourth in New England, UMass has two fine runners in Bill Gillen and Randy Thomas. The Minutemen don't really have the depth that Providence does, but they have a solid backup group of Tom Maguire, Paul Sergerstein and Tom Maguire, Paul Sergerstein and Tom Wilson. In a meet against Boston College, Gillen, Thomas, Maguire and Sergerstein ended in a quadruple tie.

The Crimson will have to count on strong performances by captain Ric Rojas and number two man Jim Keefe, who did even better than expected last week against Northeastern.

Even if Harvard placed strongly up front, it could still be in trouble unless the second wave of Andy Campbell, Dirk Skinner who ran well last week, and a fifth scorer coming from Jim Hughes, Jeri Hines, Jeff Brokaw and sophomore Bill Okerman come through today.

"We expect Keefe and Rojas to do well, but Campbell could be our big surprise," McCurdy said. "He's in better shape than I've ever seen him. A break through by him could scramble everything up."

"The only edge, if there is any, lies in the fact that Providence can afford to have an off performance of two and perhaps not be hurt by it," McCurdy said. "Neither Harvard nor UMass can. Anyhow, Irish imports or not, we intend to win."