With hail falling and temperatures in the 40s summer seemed about as far away as England, but both were on the minds of the Harvard and Yale track teams yesterday afternoon at MIT.
The results of the meet determined who will be selected to the combined Harvard-Yale team that will travel to England for the Oxford Cambridge meet in mid-June. All first place finishers were guaranteed a place, with the rest of the spots being decided by the coaches today. Twenty-eight men and 18 women will be chosen. Each school, however is guaranteed at least a third of the spots.
With most minds on England, the meet itself seemed almost incidental, but in the end the men's team easily won 98-60, while the women lost the contest in the last rally, 66-61.
Before the women's mile relay the score stood at 61-61; the event had no bearing on the overseas venture, just the meet on hand Harvard's Sigrid Gabler led off and stayed even with her Yale counterpart until the handoff. When the Yale quartet went ahead for good.
To start off the day, Crimson throwers Al Quintero and Maria Acacia got a quick hold on their reservations for England Quintero, who has been outstanding all season long, beat his nearest competition by over 20 feet, with a toss of 168 feet, seven inches in the hammer throw. Acacia's discus toss of 127 feet took first place by almost five feet. She also took first place in the shot put, but the rest of the throwing events, both men's and women's, went to the Elis.
The men thinclads had greater success in the other field events, which were held indoors because of the dismal weather. Co-Captain Gus Udo saw his overseas ticket go to Bulldog Doug Wiggins when Wiggins leaped a quarter of an inch longer than Udo in the long jump, but Udo came right back to lead a Crimson sweep of the triple jump.
Freshman Rudy Buntic had one of his most successful days of the season, winning the pole vault with a vault of 15 feet, six inches. Fellow Yardling Doug Boyd won the high jump.
While the jumpers were enjoying the warmth and dryness of the indoors, their teammates were braving the elements of the outside. Andy Regan took the grueling steeple race with a time of 9:32.0, but even more incredible was his teammate Jim MacDonald's second place finish. At one point in the race, MacDonald demonstrated his swimming prowess when he fell into the Steeple Chase pool. After his tumble, he picked himself up and continued to run, beating Yale's Charles Comey by over five seconds.
In the women's distance events it was all Crimson. Kate Wiley edged out teammate Kathy Good by two tenths of a second in the 3000 for first place, while Wiley's roommate, Jenny Stricker took the 1500, edging out Eli Margaret Wynne. Wynne had been breathing down Stricker's back the entire race. Grace deFires took the 800 to round out the overseas distance corps.
In the men's distance events, the Crimson was just as successful. Sophomore Cliff Sheehan edged out senior Adam Dixon to capture the 1500 and then watched as Dixon edged out Eric Schuler in the 1500. Dixon and Schuler shook off Yale's Mark Atkeson as they rounded the last lap and then the Crimson duo matched each other stride for stride until Dixon outkicked Schuler down the stretch.
The final list of the combined Harvard-Yale team goes up this afternoon, and once that is settled the Harvard track team can turn its thoughts to a location almost as exotic--Providence. R. I.--where the squad will head this weekend to take on Brown and Dartmouth.
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