When a track coach loses a potential national intercollegiate champion through premature war service graduation, and still gets eight hours sleep a night, it is time to examine the rest of his team. Varsity mentor Jaakko Mikkola will miss javelin thrower Dave Murray this spring. He will have other headaches too, trying to strengthen the sprint department. But overbalancing these defects is the apparent overall depth of the team. The Varsity squad which emerged from Briggs Cage two weeks ago is virtually the same one which grabbed fourth place in the indoor IC4A meet earlier this month and which throttled the Bulldog, 55 to 45, on Washington's birthday.

Coach Mikkola, like a mechanic overhauling a car for spring driving, is currently gearing this Crimson machine from winter to spring operation. Runners have been turned loose on the riverbank, where, despite scenic distractions, they have been working out the winter kinks pretty well. Candidates with a head start as a result of recent indoor campaigning include Harvey Thayer, Bob Toppan and Bob Cameron in the sprints; Al Ruby, Cliff Wharton, Jim Wheeler, Ted Withington, Dave Hamblett, Dave Groshong and Arnie Edelman in the middle-distances; and Frank Gurley, Huna Rosenfeld and Jack Cogan in the distances. Still, until the Stadium cinders dry out enough to permit continued use, Coach Mikkola won't be able to figure out definitely which runners which start in which events against Brown, Tufts and Rhode Island State on April 19. To quicken conditioning, twice-daily workouts have been scheduled for the vacation week.

Meanwhile, out behind the Stadium, Crimson weight hopes have already begun to cystallize. The Harvard 16-pound hammer record of 170 feet 1 inch was established on May 20, 1939, by W. J. Shallow '40. It is about as safe now as a balloon in the hands of three five-year-olds. When it will be broken is merely a question of which of the three Varsity strong men rounds into shape quickest. Leading the triumvirate is Jack Fisher, a Senior and All-New England center for Dick Harlow last fall. The former Andover athlete who threw 168 feet in the Yale meet last spring, will now be able to turn his full attention to track. Unless Fisher breaks his leg between now and the beginning of the season, he is expected to better the present record by at least ten feet. When Sam Felton, second ranking weightman, who placed third, right behind Fisher in the indoor IC4A 35-pound weight event, came here last fall from Dartmouth, he could twirl the hammer 150 feet. Then assistant coach Ed Flanagan took over and "showed me what was wrong." Within four days, Felton was throwing 167 feet. Phil Zeigler completes the Varsity hammer group.

Shotputters Pete Garland and Bill Jackson may hit 50 feet this spring. Garland, who looks like somebody from Greek mythology and throws the shot put a lot farther, tossed 49 feet 6 inches in the 1942 Freshman Yale meet. The college record is 50 feet 6 3/4 inches, held by H. P. Mendel '40. Felton Garland and Jackson will all double in the discus. Elsewhere in the field events, more holdovers from the indoor season will spearhead the Crimson scoring thrust. Pete Harwood, Bill Lawrence, Owen Torrey and Tom Johnson have all proved their qualifications for the pole-vault, with Harwood up around 13 feet 6 inches, Lawrence and Torrey pushing 13 feet, and Johnson capable of 11 feet. Pete Garland and Gene Harrigan will take care of the high-jumping chores. Both have done six feet. Dave Read, who has been hobbling around on crutches since the eve of the Yale meet, will be ready for action by April first and his return will case the responsibility of Harvey Thayer. Read will also help out Captain Wes Flint in the 110-yard high and 220-yard low hurdles, as will Pat McCormick, Interscholastic champion from Cleveland. Flint, third in the IC4A Indoor 60-yard highs, and considered unbeatable in the 220 lows outdoors, will continue his rivalry with Yale's Cook and Finlay on the cinders.

Last spring, Harvard begged down in fifth place in the Heps, behind Army, Navy, Penn and Dartmouth. Since then, though, Crimson stock has climbed steadily, and by pacing all other Ivy colleges in the recent IC4A championships, the Varsity served notice that its wartime possum-playing days are over. Now, although the spring curtain-raiser is still a flock of shinsplints away, the first flush of competitive fever is swooping over the Varsity track scene.