In what promises to be the most gruelling encounter of the season for Coach Jaakko Mikkola's men, the Crimson cross country team will face the powerful Rhode Island harriers this afternoon. The Holy Cross team, not as potent as the Rhode Island outfit, but still a threat, completes the three cornered meet.

As the contest approaches, Coach Mikkola is pessimistic over the outcome. He is most wary of the top Rhode Island quartet, all of whom ran very successfully last year, winning the IC4A title by eighty points and the NCAA meet by thirty points over Penn. The Holy Cross team has a potential great in Bob Nichols, for the last two years mainstay of the track squad.

Captain Phinney Crimson Star

Nine men will race for Rhode Island, and six will represent Holy Cross. The Harvard team will field ten men from the squad of about fourteen, with the home team's hopes resting on Fred Phinney '43, Varsity captain, Bill Palson '44, and Tim Coggeshall '44.

A blow to the cross country team's plans for this season was the enlistment of Joe McAndrews '46, in the Navy. He had been called the best Freshman distance runner ever to pound the cinders for Harvard.

The five-mile race will be run from Watertown to the Harvard river-bank path.