The 1921 cross-country team of seven men will compete in New York this afternoon in the I. C. A. A. A. A. Freshman Championships. This race, which will be under the auspices of Columbia University, is an innovation which was introduced into intercollegiate athletics this fall as a result of the war-time tendency toward increased importance of freshman sports. The race, which will start at 2.15 o'clock, will be run over the Van Courtlandt Park three-mile course. The first five members of each team to finish will count in the score.

After the completion of the Freshman contest the feature event of the afternoon will take place when informal teams from Yale, Cornell and other colleges meet in the annual Intercollegiate Race. They will compete for the cross- country championship over the six-mile Van Courtlandt Park course. Although the University team ran in the I. C. A. A. A. A. Meet at New Haven last year, the informals have not been entered in the race today, for the university season came to an end ten days ago.

The seven Freshman runners who will enter the race this afternoon were chosen because of their work in the dual meet with Yale last Saturday. Their names follow: D. F. O'Connell, captain; J. E. Nally, F. L. A. Cady, B. W. Boyden, C. A. Page, H. E. Chambers and E. A. Weld. Besides running against the Cornell and Princeton squads they will probably be started against the same Yale harriers whom they defeated a week ago.

The contest today will be the final one of the season for the Freshman runners, and the fourth one in which they have entered as a team. Individual members of the squad, however, have taken part in other races under the colors of the R. O. T. C. or the H. A. A. The first race, held with Andover on October 27, was lost by the score of 22 points to 33. The next meet was a quadrangular affair on November 10 in which the Freshmen placed second to Wakefield High School with 56 points to the latter's 32. Last week came the first victory, won against the Eli freshmen, 19 to 47.

Captain D. F. O'Connell '21 is the star runner of the team and the favorite for first place this afternoon. Last Saturday he came in a winner by a wide margin, establishing a new course record at Belmont. Second place was taken by J. E. Nally '21.