PRINCETON, N.J.--The Harvard men's track team lost its first meet of the season to an Ivy rival Saturday when a powerful squad from Princeton used its superior depth to win the Big Three title with 91 points. The Crimson followed with 58 points, and Yale limped in third with 21 points.

Besides the strain of running away from home at Princeton's Jadwin Gymnasium, the tracksters competed without freshman Buck Logan and middle-distance champion John Murphy.

"In the past we've made up for holes in our line-up by using four guys like ten. Without Murphy, we've lost a lot of flexibility and had to make three guys out of [Adam] Dixon," coach Bill McCurdy said after the meet.

Surprisingly, all three of those Dixons almost won. In the 1500 meter run, Dixon held on to an early lead to break the tape at 3:52.71. Tri-captain Thad McNulty, who later in the day won the 800 meters in 1:54.04, bagged second at 3:53.07, while freshman Eric Schuler, on Tiger Dan Challener's tail for much of the race, pulled by him in the last yards to take third at 3:54.38 to complete the Crimson sweep.

In the 500 meters, Dixon powered past Princeton's Peter Arduino on the last turn to cross the line at 1:04.80, and a one-tenth-of-a-second win. Harvard's Brian McAndrews nabbed third at 1:06.56.

Dixon's attempt at a hat-trick was denied when his final shot hit the post. After a slow start which left him second to last in the pack, Dixon staged a miraculous comeback to put him neck and neck with Princeton's Brad Rowe as the two appraoched the finish line. As Dixon strode through the tape, and Rowe dove beneath it, the public address system echoed, "That's Dixon's third win of the day."

Upon strict scrutiny of the finish-line photograph, however, the officials awarded the victory to Rowe for his half-gainer finish. Both runners posted a 2:27.64 time.

"If I had to call it, I'd say it was a dead heat," McCurdy said after the race.

In the 55 meter dash, junior Peter Nsiah sprinted to a victory in 6.50 seconds, with tri-captain Joe Salvo on his heels at 6.52, upsetting favored Tiger Manny Modu.

Although the Tigers dominated the field events, several tracksters scored. Freshman Gus Udo flew 7.05 meters (23 ft. 6 in.) to win the long jump. He also leapt to fourth place in the high jump and third in the triple jump.

In the pole vault, sophomore Dave Randall led the Crimson with his second place finish and a personal best, vaulting 4.3 meters (14 ft. 2 1/2 in.)

In the 35 lb. weight toss, tri-captain Tom Lenz's commendable throw of 18.41 meters (60 ft. 9 in.) gave him a second place behind Tiger David Pellegrini, whose toss of 20.57m (67 ft. 9 in.) broke the only meet record of the day.