Harvard waged battle against the Army track team at West Point Saturday, but the Crimson ran out of troops towards the end of the meet and went down to defeat, 65-53.

"The field event people outscored their opponents," coach Bill McCurdy said yesterday, "but we were minus too many runners to do well in that department."

Junior strongman Ed Ajootian broke out of his slump--if you can call 59- and 60-ft. throws a slump--with a 63-ft. 2 3/4- in. toss in the 35-lb. weight throw to defeat two tough opponents.

"The spark of Ajootian coming through against these guys who could have beaten him really helped the team," McCurdy said.

Chris Queen caught fire from Ajootian's spark in the shot put, heaving the shot 51 ft. 3 in. to win that event.

Carbon Dioxide

Geoff Stiles, with a winning 15-ft. leap in the pole vault, and Hasan Kayali, with a 45-ft. 3 3/4-in. victory in the triple jump, continued the hot field event work.

The Cadets began to extinguish the Crimson spark in the running events, though. Todd Hooks lost photo-finish decisions to Army's Mike Willis (7.5 in the hurdles) and Kevin Jackson (6.5 in the dash), and the Cadets also won the 600.

Troop Movements

Jeff Campbell kept Harvard in the meet with his "double" in the mile (4:12.1) and the 880 (1:53.9).

But the Crimson lacked Army's depth in manpower--Scott Dolson and Stein Rafto, among others, were out--and the Cadets marched into a commanding 55-53 lead when standout Curt Alitz (13:26.6) downed Pete Fitzsimmons and Reed Eichner in the three-mile run.

Two points may not sound too commanding, but it meant that depleted Crimson troops had to win both relays to take the meet. Army cruised to victories in both.

"We just plain didn't have enough depth in running to match the challenge they put up," McCurdy said. "And that's been pretty much the story all year."