Harvard's unbeaten varsity cross country team shoots for its fifth straight Greater Boston title at Franklin Park this afternoon.

Brandeis, Boston College, Boston University, M.I.T., Northeastern, and Tufts will provide the first obstacles on a championship trail that will include the Big Three, Heptagonal, IC4A, and NCAA meets in the next four weeks.

Head Coach Bill McCurdy is optimistic about his team's chances in today's race--so confident in fact, that he is holding aces Roy Shaw and Doug Hardin and sophomore Jon Enscoe out of the meet in anticipation of Friday's Yale-Princeton battle.

Others to Lead

In their absence, McCurdy expects sophomores Dave Pottetti and Tom Spengler and junior Keith Colburn to lead the team. Pottetti has challenged Shaw and Hardin in the last few meets and is ready to strike out on his own.

The Greater Boston Meet has always meant more to local residents, and Spengler, a native of Arlington, could cast aside his role as a consistent supporting runner in favour of a first-place medal. Colburn, too, has shown flashes of brilliance and is a threat to run away with it all any time he is near enough to scent victory.

Behind his front-runners, McCurdy has a strong back-up group. Senior Tim McLoone has made steady progress recovering from leg injuries.

Rangy John Heyburn has hovered around the seventh position all season and will be bidding to stake out a definite slot for himself before the team is cut to seven for the last three meets.

Junior Erik Roth, a mild disappointment in last Friday's Dartmouth meet, will also be closely watched today. If he has shaken his injuries and related conditioning problems, Roth could bounce back to the early-season form that saw him in fifth position against Northeastern.

Senior Pete Dennehy or sophomore Howie Foye will round out the Crimson squad with the steady backup ability that today's opponents lack so badly.

Although B.U.'s Pete Hoss is the premeet favorite to gallop away with individual honors, only M.I.T. and Northeastern will come close to challenging the Crimson harriers.

Tech scored a convincing victory over Tufts and Amherst last weekend. Led by bespectacled Ben Wilson, the Engineers boast a strong top four grouped within thirty seconds of each other. Northeastern has made considerable progress since an opening meet loss to Harvard. Even with inspired performances from top-level runners who dream of beating a McCurdy team, however, neither team has the backup strength to pull it off this afternoon.