ITHACA, NY., March 4--A major championship track meet calls for something special from the participants. To fare well in a meet like tonight's Heptagonal Games, a performer must come up with an effort a little better than his previous best, not a little worse. Not all track men have the ability to do this.

One who has it is the Crimson's Don Kirkland. The scrawny little junior is the team clown, and people have a tendency to forget that he can be a rugged competitor.

Yet it was Kirkland who contributed the outstanding varsity performance tonight, as the Crimson finished a moldy fourth in the Heps. Yale, in a spectacular display, scored 59 points for first place, as Navy, with 37, and Army, with 24, straggled behind. Dartmouth, Cornell, Princeton, Brown, Penn, and Columbia, in that order filled the bottom six positions.

In the afternoon 600 trials, Kirkland produced a good closing sprint to edge out Yale's Bill Legat for the second of two qualifying spots. Running in another heat, Harry Rich, a surprise entrant, held off Navy's George Marienthal to give the varsity two qualifiers in the 600.

Tonight, Kirkland ran in third place all the way, and came reasonably close to overhauling Princeton's Dick Edmunds. Yale's Jim Stack, whipping Edmunds in the 600 for the umpteenth time, was the victor in the Heptagonal and Barton Hall record time of 1:10.8. But Kirkland, in third, turned in a sparkling 1:12.7, by far the best clocking a Crimson runner has ever recorded in Barton Hall.

Shut Out in Mlle Relay

Kirkland added a 50.7 anchor leg for the mile relay squad, but the team, thanks to a 54.0 lead off by Frank Yeomans, was shut out.

Another who showed ability to rise to the occasion was Fred Howard. Howard took the lead for two laps in the 1000, before he was passed by Yale's Tommy Carroll, who was finally on his way to his first indoor Heps victory. But Howard hung on. and fought off strong bids by Bob Kiggins of Navy and Peter Brandies of Cornell. He finished second, in 2:13.7, unofficially bettering the Harvard record and surpassing all previous Crimson performances in Barton Hall.

Carroll's 2:13 was a new Barton record, and represents a fine effort on the un-banked, unyielding Barton floor--which more properly should be referred to as a basketball court, which it is. The Crimson's Gus Schumacher won his preliminary heat in the 1000, as the varsity again had two men in the finals.

As far as first place was concerned, the varsity was finished after the first event this afternoon. In the weight throw, the Crimson's Stan Doten was favored for the second straight year, and for the second straight year he was beaten by Navy's Jud Sage. Doten's second effort was a 61 ft. heave, putting him comfortably in the lead. But Sage got off a 61 ft., 5 1/4 in. toss on his next-to-last attempt, and Doten responded by dropping one practically among the spectators. Sage added 5 1/4 in. toss his lead on his last toss.

Bailey Finishes Third

Ted Bailey took third for the varsity, but the Crimson had finished second and third instead of first and second, and in a meet where every point had to count, this was fatal. Rick deLone and Steve Cohen didn't help matters any by taking fourth and fifth in the shot put, at 52 ft., 81/2 in. and 52 ft., 6 in. Dick Brown of Navy was first, with a Heptagonal and Bacon Cage mark of 56 ft., 8 in.

As expected, Zeke Azikiwe (22 ft., 9 3/4 in.) and Al Albright (22-9 1/4) came in third and fourth in the broad jump, as John Prichard of Navy (23-71/2) won it on his last jump.

The Crimson scored in only five events. Elsewhere--in the dash, the hurdles, the mile, the two-mile, and, most disappointingly of all, both relays--you could have timed the varsity with a calendar.

Yale was superb in running up the highest point total in Heptagonal history. The Elis notched six firsts--Bill Flippin with 7.7 in the hurdles, Stack in the 600, Carroll in the 1000, Bobby Mack with a Barton record 4:16.5 in the mile, Sam Streibert with 6 ft., 6 in. in the high jump, and the two-mile relay unit with a 7:56.3.

It was not, in all, a happy day for coach Bill McCurdy's varsity. The team had the potential to push Yale for the title, but once the show started, nothing happened. One wonders if the golden days of 1956-57, when the Crimson twice won the Heptagonal crown, are gone forever.