Dick Benka and Keith Colburn livened up an otherwise uneventful evening last night, as Harvard's track team breezed by B.U., 88-16, in its opening dual meet in Briggs Cage.

Benka, the team's huge amiable captain, set a new Harvard indoor record in the shot put with a 58'8 3/4" toss. But he was obviously not satisfied with his winning throw--which broke the record Benka himself set in last year's IC4A's--since he has been throwing near the 60 foot mark in practice.

Colburn won both the 600 and 1000 for Harvard, both in good times. B.U. didn't even have an entry in the 600, but Colburn was given a good race by teammates John Gillis and Mike Hallock as he sped through the four-plus laps in 1:13.2.

In the 1000, the red-headed junior took away an early lead from teammate Tom Callahan and then poured it on to win in 2:15.1 by about 20 yards. He was followed by Harvard's Jon Enscoe and Jon Gorham.

Colburn sat out almost the entire indoor season last year with an injury. But he was a consistently high finisher for the cross country team this fall, and it looks like he will be much better indoors at the shorter distances. As a freshman, Colburn tied the university record in the 600 (1:10.5) and ran the country's fastest freshman half-mile in the British Nationals.

Doug Hardin, Dave Pottetti, and Royce Shaw didn't run at all last night, as coach Bill McCurdy was conserving them for the Crimson's meet with Army this Saturday. But their presence would only have added insult to injury. Harvard took firsts in every event but the mile and the 40-yard dash.

Harvard began the romp with a sweep in the 35-pound weight throw. Charlie Ajootian hurled the lead 56'8" for first, and sophomore Ed Nosal and senior Dave Bernstein were second and third respectively.

A surprise win in the high jump and a second sweep in the broad jump, and you knew B.U. was in for a drubbing. Harvard's Jim Coleman's 6'2" spring in the high jump was good enough for first, as B.U.'s John Winskowicz--a 6'8" jumper--was injured and unable to compete.

And despite the demoralizing absence of gimpy Bob Galliers, Harvard's broad jumpers won all three places with Skip Hare in first with a 22' 6 1/2" jump.

Two other good individual performances came from Tim McLoone, who won the two-mile in 9:15.6, and Jon Enscoe, who was barely beaten out at the finish of the mile by B.U.'s captain, Pete Hoss. Hoss broke the tape at 4:10.5 and Enscoe was less than a second behind--4:11.1.