Cross country coach Jaakko Mikkola always dusts off the welcome mat for prospective runners. This week, he'll hold a meeting for erstwhile pavement pounders at his headquarters in Dillon Field House. Practices are held on what is known as the University Handicap Course, a cinder strip running parallel to the Charles River as far as the Metropolitan Police Station. For meet competition, both Freshman and Varsity squads move to Dorchester's Franklin Park.

Dismal Season Last Fall

Last year's Varsity record was typical of the mediocre showing Crimson harrier units have made in the past few years (although Coach Mikkola's Freshman-Varsity track and cross country score-card against Yale is 33 wins and 9 losses).

The 1947 season came to a disastrous ending at Princeton when Harvard, in the traditional triangular meet, knuckled under to the Bulldog 18 to 38 and to the Tiger 16 to 38.

"Cross country means so much," he explains. "When your cross country material is good, your track teams generally turn out strong."