The cross country team had little trouble trouncing Providence yesterday afternoon at Franklin Park, as it took five of the top six spots for a 20-39 victory.

The Crimson was without the service of captain Tom Spengler, who has won every race he's entered this fall. Spengler hurt a knee Monday, and coach Bill McCurdy decided that it would be too risky to permit him to compete yesterday.

Mike Koerner and Jeff Brokaw entered the race, but neither was able to run hard because of injuries.

Harvard got off to a relatively fast start against Providence, and the Friars never recovered. At the mile, Bob Seals was first, and a large part of the Crimson team had already detached itself from the opponent.

Seals' lead was short-lived, however. Providence's Bill Speck passed him shortly after the mile point and was never caught. After the first two miles, Speck moved away from the pack of pursuers.

Meanwhile, John Quirk had moved up to the number two spot, trailed closely by Mark Connolly and Bob Seals. Providence's second man was far back throughout the race.

By the four-mile point, Connolly had taken over the second spot and eventually finished second behind Speck, whose winning time was a rather slow 26:50. Connolly's time was 27:07. Quirk was third, while Seals, Tom New, and George Barker tied for fourth to seal the win.

The Friars managed to place Chris Schultz and Dennis Swart in the next two spots, but Harvard's Howie Foye and Max Schweizer were ninth and tenth.

Providence might have done better if two of its runners, including Tom Aman, hadn't been sidelined with injuries.

McCurdy

McCurdy was rather pleased with the work of his sophomores, who have not been doing quite as well this fall as preseason camp performances indicated they would. Connolly's running showed the biggest improvement. He had been finishing about seventh on the Harvard ladder in earlier meets.

"Mark was in complete control of himself all the way through," McCurdy said. "He wasn't running anyone else's race."

The Harvard freshmen didn't encounter much trouble, either. Rick Rojas, Jerry Hines, and Andy Campbell tied for first in 16:31 to lead the Yardlings to a 17-44 triumph. The time was slow for Rojas, who has run a 15:56. Jerry Hadley took fourth before Providence placed its first man, Kevin Downey.