Super Bowl Sunday. Time to sit back, pop a Pepsi and watch the big game.

And, for a select few, it's also time to get up early in the morning and run, jump and throw until their lungs burst. Cornell  66 Harvard  70 Cornell  65 Harvard  53

Huh? No pretzels?

That's right, the men's and women's track teams spent last Sunday a little differently than the rest of us. The Crimson took on Cornell, with the men winning, 70-66, and the women falling, 65-53.

The men's team fell behind 33-21 after the shot put, but Harvard (3-0) then ripped off six straight first-place finishes and would hold the lead for the rest of the day.

The team's success started when junior Ben Bowen (50.35) and sophomore Jerome McCluskey (51.42) came in first and second in the 400 meters, earning Harvard an 8-1 victory in that event.

And the beat went on. Junior Darin Shearer finished first in the 500 meters and the 1000 meters, junior Shane Mauricette won the 55 meter hurdles, Bowen added an 800 meter victory and sophomore Steve Brannon topped it all of with a win in the pole vault.

Next thing Cornell knew, Harvard was leading, 55-44, and for all intents and purposes the meet was over.

"We felt that if it came down [to the wire] that we would get it," Bowen said. "We were pretty confident that we'd secure it with a running event [at the end]."

The victory was particularly impressive for the Crimson given that the Big Red had taken its exams many weeks ago and had been holding regular practices for all that time.

Harvard, on the other hand, hadn't competed since January 6.

"We came out a little flat," junior high jumper Terry Mann (6'7", first place) said. "We knew that we were the better team and that we'd find a way to win. If we met them again in a couple of weeks, it wouldn't be close."

"We'd stomp all over them," he added.

Women Stumble

On the other side of the track, the women weren't so fortunate. The powerful Big Red grabbed the lead after sweeping the top two spots in the mile and would never fall behind again.