In their first meet of the season, the Harvard men's and women's indoor track team lost to Army 84-52 and 70-48 respectively last Friday on the Gordon Indoor Track.

The highlight of the meet for Harvard was Erin Sugrue's winning 6-ft. high jump, which qualified her for the NCAA championships in March, set a new university record, and gave her a new personal best.

"It was an unexpected surprise that it came this early [in the season]," Sugrue said. "My goal was to qualify for the nationals in January after getting a few meets under my belt. It was a shock, but I'm not about to look a gift horse in the mouth."

Male tracksters Paul Gompers (who placed fifth in the NCAA cross country championships last month) and James Russell both qualified for the New England Intercollegiate Athletic Association of America Championships--Russell with a 64-ft., 4 1/2-in. throw in the 35-lb. weight event, and Gompers with a 3:52.49 victory in the 1500-meter run.

"I'm very pleased with the 61-ft. 4 1/2-in.," Russell said. "The coach was pleased about it and so was I--it was a personal best. I'm glad it came early in the season. There is always room for improvement. By the time the bigger meets come around the whole team will be refined and ready to peak at those meets."

Other female tracksters who won their events were Beth Pfefferly in the 400 (59.42), Toby Warden in the 3000 (9:48.46)--qualifying her for the IC4A Chamionships--and the 2-mile relay team of Katie Toner, Tina Lount, Lise Vansen, and Eva Klohnen with a time of 9:39.92.

Victorious men thinclads were Joseph Giani with a 46-ft., 3 1/2-in. throw in the shotput, Steven Pinney with a 14-ft., 6-in. jump in the pole vault, Robert Gustafson with a 6-ft., 4-in. high jump, Chris Robertson with a 1:06.75 time in the 500, and freshman Nick Arera with a 1:56.90 800.

Footballed

The meet--originally scheduled for yesterday at Army--was held on Friday at Harvard instead because of Saturday's Army-Navy football game.

The men's team was doing very well during most of the meet, behind Army by only four points going into the last four events.

"We were doing really well and then things went sour," Abbey said. "In the mile relay there was a bad handoff and Chris [Robinson] got spiked. We realize now that we can't take some events for granted. We have to try to get as many points as possible."

"We usually lose to Army early in the year, but in the last two out of four Ivy championships the Harvard men's team has won," Sheehan said. "We start slowly and improve as the season goes along, gearing towards the championship meets."