The weather was lousy for the second meet in a row, but the women's track team had little trouble braving the chilling cold and persistent drizzle on the way to drubbing a surprisingly weak Yale team, 93-33, Saturday at Harvard Stadium.
"I thought that Yale would have much more strength than they did," head coach R. S. "Pappy" Hunt said after the meet. "They beat a strong Brown team last week by five points," he said in appraising the mysterious performance of his opponents.
Harvard exploited the Elis' lack of team depth by sweeping four events outright and taking the top two places in a pair of other events. In the process, the Crimson broke nine University outdoor records.
Kim Johnson and junior jack-of-all-trades Sue Harper led the Harvard rout. Harper, the meet's top point-earner with 13, won the 100- and the 400-meter hurdles, tying her old University record in the first event and setting a new mark of 1:13.6 in the second.
Not satisfied, Harper came back to take second in the long jump behind Yale's Diane Miller to round out her scoring total.
Freshman Johnson led a strong field event squad--competing inside the dry ITT--which piled up 31 points. The Yardling led a Harvard sweep in the discus with a record-breaking 109-ft., 6-in. toss.
Johnson came back with a strong performance in the shot, shattering her own record with a heave of 44-ft., 2 1/2-in. The coaching staffs of both teams rewarded Johnson for her showing by voting her the Treasurer's Cup, signifying the meet's most outstanding performer.
High jumper Sue Hewitt continued her domination of that event, capturing first place with a 5-ft., 2-in. leap, equalling her record to round out the Crimson's field event winners.
Despite the miserable conditions, the runners had a fine day as team marks fell in every event except the 100-meter dash and the mile relay.
Leslie Sims and Kim Clermont turned in a one-two finish in the 200-meter dash, both bettering the old record (held by Clermont) easily.
Senior Posey Bryan established a new record in the 400-meter run, passing teammate Kathy Dorsey down the stretch to win in 1:01.5. Becky Rodgers finished third in that race to complete the sweep.
Co-captain Sarah Linsley completed the list of record-breakers who took first-place finishes, capturing the 800-meter run with a time of 2:24.1.
Hunt counseled against reading too much into the fact that nine records were broken, noting that the old marks were set when the program was just embarking on the road to respectability. He expects that the records will continue to fall as the season progresses.
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