The freshman cross country team takes a 7-2 season record into this afternoon's crucial meet against Princeton and Yale at Princeton.

On the basis of comparative scores, the Tiger harriers are pre-meet favorites. All three teams have lost to Penn's outstanding squad, but Princeton's record is otherwise untarnished. Harvard and Yale have also dropped dual meets to Cornell and Dartmouth, respectively.

In recent weeks, however, the Yardling harriers have shown consistent improvement. Bob Seals has developed into a front-runner and scored victories in two meets this past week. Alan Long shows promise of filling the gap caused by Mike Koerner's persistent leg injury.

Newly-elected captain Andy Metzloff, Rick Jurgens and Rick Barton all possess strong finishing kicks which could tip the meet in Harvard's favor if the race is a close one.

Coaches Bill McCurdy and Pappy Hunt have pulled out all stops in their efforts to get their charges up for the big meet. The varsity has sported crimson berets all week, and Hunt broke out a set of "Beat Yale" ties before the team left Cambridge yesterday. The walls of Dillon Feld House have been covered with signs and posters to drive home the importance of the meets to both varsity and J.V. runners.