Frank Haggerty '68, the head coach of the Harvard men's and women's cross country teams, is not the type of person to tempt the gods of hubris.

When asked how his respective teams look in the upcoming season, he restrains himself from saying anything that gives the slightest inkling of boldness.

"I don't like to say too much early," Haggerty said. "You never know what's going to happen."

But who can blame him for being cautious? Haggerty has seen how injuries can devastate a team, and he won't let any evil karma come his way.

In 1993, then-freshman Karen Goetze injured her ankle right before the Heptagonals--the most important meet in the team's season. Last year, male runners Killian Lonergan and Danny Herlihy began the season disabled, and Jenny Martin missed the last two weeks with mononucleosis.

(No wonder Medicare is going broke.)

The thing is, though, that either team will have a decent show at winning Heps should the runners remain healthy. The women's team returns practically all of its top runners, while the men possess perhaps the league's best runner in junior captain Ian Carswell.

The women don't have many question marks. Goetze, now a junior, finished first in last year's Harvard-Yale-Princeton triangle, leading the Crimson to its first victory in that meet since 1986. There's also sophomore Margaret Angell and juniors Martin, Cricket Sheppard-Sawyer and Jessica Mikszewski, all of whom finished in the top 10 at the H-Y-P's.

MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY

Record: 1-3

Heptagonals: Eighth

Coach: Frank Haggerty

Captain: Ian Carswell '97

Key Returnees: Brian Walsh '96, Darin Shearer '96

Key Loss: Daniel Satran '95