The Harvard Croquet Team, a club sport squad that takes pride in rarely practicing, finished third in national competition this weekend.

Team co-captains Lawrence A. Sacerdote '97 and Antonio F. Soler '98 took third place at the United States Croquet Association (USCA) National Collegiate Championships, held Saturday and yesterday at Smith College.

Eight schools competed at the tournament, including Yale, Princeton, Penn, Navy, Georgetown, smith and the eventual champions, St. John's of Maryland.

Sacerdote said the competition at the tournament was "pretty fierce."

"There were a lot of arguments on the court," he said.

Soler said many of the other schools take croquet more seriously than Harvard, even offering credit for courses in the sport.

"It's very interesting how we play against schools that take it very seriously and just seem naturally less able," he said.

Soler said that Harvard's team is successful because it has a tradition of practicing "as little as possible."

"We find that practices actually inhibit our game," Sacerdote said. "You start thinking too much."

"It approaches something commonly known as beginner's luck, but we like to think of it as strategy," he added.

The tradition of not practicing traces back to the team's inception, Soler said.

David P. Ross '93, Ryan K. Berglund '95 and Timothy E. Bannon--a member of the class of 1994--went to the national championships in 1991 never having played competitive croquet, and won the tournament. After their victory, the students then founded the Harvard team.

Sacerdote and Soler stressed that competition at the tournament has become more competitive in recent years.

Although the croquet team does not have a practice facility, Sacerdote and soler said they are trying to talk with Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III about getting a croquet court installed at Harvard.

"It's a real problem--sometimes we have to go out in the Cambridge Common," Sacerdote said.