Bill McCurdy would have been proud.

Harvard honored the memory of its legendary track coach, who died earlier this year, in more ways than one at the Harvard-Yale dual meet on Saturday. The men, slight underdogs coming in, scrapped their way to a 89-73 win while the women dominated, 99-46.

The wins and the tribute the men's team paid him probably would have pleased McCurdy as much as the official memorial service after the meet.

"His family was there, along with many close friends and alumni," co-captain Joe Ciollo said. "Immediately after the competition, the men congregated into a circle and chanted his name in his honor for about a minute."

"I think the McCurdy memorial was an added motivation because crowd was larger than normal," Ciollo added. "Even though none of our runners had a personal connection, we had an opportunity to honor our school and a great man."

In addition to the Harvard-Yale rivalry and the McCurdy memorial, there was a trip to England on the line. This summer, a team of Harvard and Yale athletes, selected for the most part on the basis of this weekend's competition, will compete on the road against a combined Oxford Cambridge team.

In short, it was a big meet and two big wins, and the Crimson has asserted its track superiority over the Bulldogs for at least two more weeks, when they meet again at Heptagonals.

Harvard Men 89, Yale 73

Although Yale had 10 first-place finishes to Harvard's nine, the Crimson's consistent point-scoring put the meet away. Harvard got off to a quick start and had a closing burst when Yale got close.

Harvard won the first running event, the 4x100 relay, in 42.73 seconds as the Yale team dropped the baton on the first exchange. The Crimson tacked on quick wins in the javelin when sophomore Chris Clever threw 66.34 meters to lead a Harvard sweep, and the long jump, which sophomore Arthur Fergusson won at 7.28 meters.

"We piled up the points early, although Yale made it close at the end," Ciollo said. "When they won the 400 hurdles 9-0 and the 200-meter 8-1, we responded with a 9-0 win in the 5000-meter, and that was the meet.'

The meet was scored five points for first, three for second and one for third. Other Crimson wins included one by senior Scott Muoio in the 3000-meter steeplechase, in which junior David Martin finished third. Fergusson won the triple jump at 14.81 meters, and sophomore John Kraay won the shotput at 15.90 meters.

"Both teams definitely utilized their athletes to max capacity," Ciollo said. "We used the strategy of spreading people out over many events. On paper, looking at our performances and theirs coming into the meet, we appeared to be underdogs. We knew that we had to step up our own performances."

Among those who had to change his routine was freshman Kevin Worrell, who finished second in the 100-meter, long jump and triple jump.

"It was a big change, I had to end up staying warm and running for the whole meet," Worrell said. "I didn't get a lot of time to relax and warm down, and it was a really different routine, because I normally get to relax. Everyone was telling me, 'Hang in there, congratulations,' stuff like that."