With expectations of a close meet vanishing as quickly as the balmy weather, the Harvard track team rebounded strongly from two consecutive losses to soundly thrash Dartmouth yesterday, 112-49. It was a rather routine rout for the Crimson as they captured firsts in 15 of the 18 events.
In the field, where a battle was expected in the javelin, the high jump and the weights, Harvard scored better than coach Bill McCurdy had anticipated, and began to build a lead that it stretched through the course of the cold, raw afternoon. Bill Tew led a 1-2 Crimson performance in the javelin, winning the event on his last throw. Fred Lang, competing in his first meet of the Spring, won the high jump, and Ted DeMars took the hammer.
Agility
Kevin Benjamin, returning after an aggravated knee injury, looked surprisingly agile in the triple jump, winning with a jump of 46'5", while teammate Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace took the broad jump at 22'.
More surprising than Harvard's success in the field was its domination in the running events. Bob Seals in the mile set the pace for the Crimson. Running a strong race. Seals was outkicked in the final lap and took second with a 4:15.8 clocking, but his performance was particularly encouraging to McCurdy. "He wasn't ready to do that yet, but nobody bothered to tell him," McCurdy said after the race. "It was one helluva effort."
Speeding Bullet
Nick Leone continued his comeback in the quarter, winning in 50.7. In the sprints, where Harvard has been strong all season, the trio of Baylee Reid, captain Bud Wilson, and Austin O'Conner had a particularly successful afternoon, sweeping both the 100 and the 220.
Bob Clayton, a casualty of the injury jinx that hit Harvard during March, made his Spring debut in the half-mile, and outkicked his Dartmouth opponent on the final turn to win in 1:57.2. Freshman John Maggio, competing in the varsity 440 intermediate hurdles, overcame a three-yard deficit--the result of a misplaced starting block--and won the race in 57.0.
Dartmouth, which could manage only three firsts all afternoon, had expected to pick up points in the distances, but Seals in the mile and Mike Koerner in the 2-mile prevented any domination by the Big Green.
Although pleased with the victory. McCurdy was already looking to the future. "To have Leone and Clayton back is in itself a shot in the arm," he said, "but we haven't put it all together yet."
Three Wishes
"We need time, opportunity and conditioning, and unfortunately the season is almost over," he added.
Judging from yesterday's performance, McCurdy has the manpower, but whether he has the time in the next few weeks to pull the team together for the big meets--the GBC's, the Heptagonals, and Yale--remains to be seen.
