Last year Coach Bill McCurdy's winter track team won six meets and the indoor Heptagonal crown, largely through the efforts of such stars as miler Mark Mullin, weightman Ed Balley, high jumper Marty Deckworth, Shot putters Rick deLone and Sarge Nichols, and a strong corps of middle distance runners.

This year all those performers are gone, but the team, which opens its season tomorrow night at 7 against M.I.T., may still have a good chance to successively defend its coveted Hops title.

The reason for the generally bright outlook is another strong nucleus of veterans and the meet promising group of sophomores in years. To produce a cohesive team from these elements ingenious coach McCurdy will have to shift his areas of strength and develop some competent relay teams, but if injuries to key men do not interfere, he may well do the trick.

The team's surest strength will come in the distance events where senior Captain Ed Hamlin and junior Eddie Meehan return. Hamlin placed third is the 1000 yards at last year's Hope while Meehan was taking third in the mile. To these veterans will be added promising sophomores Bill Crain, John Ogden, and John D'Arcy.

The sprints and hurdles, the Crimson's other strongpoints, are headed by sophomore phenomenon Aggrey Awori, a former Olympic runner from Uganda who equalled three University records as a freshman. Awori and junior Jack Spitzberg, have both been under the University hurdles record in practice and are joined is those events by senior Hank Hatch junior Rick Jones, and soph Bill Pfeiffer, Chris Ohiri, Hobie Armstrong, and John Parker add more sprint power.

The only real running weakness is at 600 yards, where sophs Gage McAfee and Lee Parker are the best bets to fill in the gap.

Heading the weight events, senior Art Doton, second place finisher in the weights last year's Hope, gets help from Loren Clayman. Soph Art Croasdale is also good, but an injured hand may keep him from putting the shot.

The broad jump, with Ohiri, Armstrong, and A wori is possibly the strongest field event. Spitzberg, though, is a strong threat in the high jump. Also, pole vautters Jay Mahaney and Don Forte should be much improved.