"A lot of our balls found the cranberry bogs," Harvard golfer Dennis Crowley said.

And so it went, as the Crimson golf team struggled on Thursday and Friday at the New England Division I Championships, shooting a 681 and placing 11th out of a field of 15.

Using their clubs as shovels, Harvard dug a grave on Thursday at Willow Bend Golf Course on Cape Cod that proved to be too deep to climb out of.

"After the first day, the top eight teams were 20 strokes up and, realistically, we couldn't make up that many strokes," Crowley said. "We played a little better on Friday, but it was a gap we couldn't cover."

Arch-rival and Ivy League champion Yale took top honors with a team score of 623. Hartford, with the support of the Crimson, took the silver, one stroke off the leader.

"I would have liked to have seen Hartford win," Robert Kincaid said. "They were nice guys."

"We were really pulling for Hartford," Crowley said. "It was good to know Yale is not well respected."

Central Connecticut St. headed for the clubhouse with a third-place 632 in its bag. Boston College tied with Maine for fourth, tallying a 636.

The tournament, in real terms, means very little because it has no bearing on who makes the national tournament. Although the top three finishers will probably make nationals, a fluke victory by the Crimson would not have earned it a berth.

"There was really nothing to win," Kincaid said. "It would only make a difference if you were borderline."

Kincaid was Harvard's top scorer with a 157. Dave Miller and Dennis Crowley tied at 167. Crimson Captain Ross Cockrell chipped in a 179 and Andy Chao finished off the Harvard scoring with a 182.

Dartmouth, Tuesday's opponent, left the bogs in ninth place with 653.

"Beating Dartmouth on their own course would be a good ending to the season," Crowley said.

After Dartmouth, the Crimson closes out its season against MIT.