"I studied the wrong thing when I went to school," reflected cross country's head coach Bill McCurdy last week. "I should have studied medicine."
The harriers meet a tough Cornell squad today at Moakley Course in Ithaca with five of the team's top seven ailing from a virus. The race begins at 1 p.m., and the Crimson is clearly the underdog.
Sophomore Ric Rojas, who led the team in its first two meets, will be out for the third time in a row as a result of the virus. He was unable to run last week against Brown and also missed the U Mass-Providence meet. The Crimson won both handily.
Captain Mike Koerner is also down with the virus. McCurdy said he may run, but his performance will definitely be hampered.
John Quirk also caught the mysterious virus harriersus and is a question mark for the race. Sophomores Freddie Linsk and Jere Hines also have the bug. Linsk is recovering while Hines is suffering from a mild case.
Thus, only Marshall Jones and Tom New will be running in top condition.
Cornell, meanwhile, has its entire squad back from last year when it tied the Crimson. The Redmen are undefeated in three starts, and haven't lost a dual meet since 1969.
Last Saturday, Cornell overwhelmed Lafayette and Rider College in Easton, Pa. They defeated Lafayette 15-47 and Rider 15-50.
Among its top runners and sophomore Phil Collins, Capt. Don Alexander, Phil Ritson and Tim Cahill.
In the same meet, Ritson ran second in 25:26 and also topped the previous record of 25:29.8 set by Harvard's Tom Spengler.
Freshman Ray DeMarco rounds out the Redmen top five. He ran sixth, sixth and fifth in the team's three meets.
Cornell is rated with Pennsylvania at the top of the Ivy League. The Quakers overwhelmed the Crimson 15-47 in New York City on October 1.
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