The final event of this year in Briggs Cage was tinged with emotion. Hurdler Frank Haggerty had tears in his eyes as he watched his four senior cohorts set a new two-mile relay record, inscribing the names Baker, McKelvey, Huvelle, and Burns in the Harvard record book. "Why the hell wasn't I in that race," muttered the "Shooter." And that's just how close those guys are.

Their friendship is strong whether it's at a K of C Meet in New York where they don't know a soul or at a Saturday night party in Huvelle's suite where the dance floor is filled with track types. They are five unassuming guys who train diligently, work for their dates, and share an unaggressive, unselfish attitude toward a sport they enjoy.

They have parlayed similarly-modest backgrounds and modest talents into modest successes. Individually their efforts have been distributed over the hurdles, 600 yard run, 1000, mile and two-mile. But it is in the relays that balanced strength can lead to the big time, and it is these relays in big-city Gardens that will be the focus of attention in the eight weeks before Harvard faces another team challenge.

Over the last four years these five, with additional contributors joining in, have had various successes in both the mile and two-mile relays. At this moment the spotlight is on the quartet that set the mark in the longer distance against B.U. Tuesday night. This group is anchored by William Burns, alternately referred to as "Trey," "George," or "Bullet," a soft-spoken Baltimorian who grew up idolizing Villanova's Davie Patrick. He coasted home Tuesday with a 1:58 split, two seconds slower than both Dave McKelvey and Jeff Huvelle, who often run identical times in the event they share, the 600. McKelvey is the wide-eyed Motor City partner of Haggerty, and has experimented with Harvard, Europe, and a moustache among other things. Huvelle sort of minds his own business, but was yanked from this anonymity by his election as team captain last spring. Baker, the first class marshal and otherwise a god-like figure, balances the looseness of his roommate Haggerty. In the group's informal lineup selection process, he chose to lead off Tuesday and made things easy with a 1:55 opening leg.

There is a chance that these four may open the invitational season at the Golden Gate Relays in San Francisco next month. They will be hard pressed to hold their places thereafter, however, as sophomores, led by potential star Keith Colburn, start to challenge. The present seniors were tightly united early in their Harvard career, and got used to considering themselves "up-and-coming." Now they find themselves "old men," and are surprised and somewhat humbled by the existence of a sophomore group whose times compare very favorably.

Colburn, and some of his mates, are just as team-spirited as the upperclassmen, and their cheering and lap-counting was instrumental in the recent record effort. But when Coach Bill McCurdy puts together a sophomore foursome--say of Roy Shaw, John Dugan, Tom Downer, and Colburn--to compete against the seniors...that'll be one January day when all the social unity and nice-guy fellowship will quickly disappear from Briggs Cage and a 7:45 record won't stand a chance.