ATWATER & SOUTTER WIN POLE VAULT CUPS

With the close of the spring track season, announcement was made last night of the award of two silver cups to the leading pole vaulters in the University and Freshman squads. The cup for the University vaulter, the Haydock cup, was awarded for one year to Montgomery Meigs Atwater '26, of Basin, Montana. The Freshman cup, a cup offered for the first time this year by R. W. Harwood '20, pole vault coach and former Harvard vaulter, to the Freshman showing the greatest improvement and the best spirit during the season, has been awarded to Robert Soutter Jr. '27, of Boston.

Atwater was a member of his Freshman track team, but he won his numerals in the javelin throw, and not in the pole vault. The situation in the pole vault this year has been a peculiar one. The two Crimson letter men, D. D. Reidy '23 and H. R. Davis '23, both graduated last spring, and at the opening of the winter track season this year, it was found that not a man with experience was returning to the pole vault squad. As a result, Atwater was shifted from the javelin to the pole vault, and in the past six months he has shown remarkable development. Starting with no experience what ever he improved during the season until the Princeton meet; in which he jumped 11 feet.

Cup in Memory of Former Star

The Haydock cup was established in 1921 in memory of George Guest Haydock '16, a former Harvard pole vaulter, who was killed during the War. Haydock twice won his letter against Yale, in 1915 and 1916, and in the latter meet, on May 13, 1916, he tied for first place in the pole vault, establishing the Harvard record of 12 feet 6 inches, which has yet to be broken. The cup, which is awarded each spring by the Track Advisory Committee, is given for a period of one year to the man who, in the opinion of the coaches and the Committee, "shows the greatest improvement in the pole vault as a result of hard work, perseverance, enthusiasm, and courageous spirit--qualities so characteristic of Haydock."

Soutter, winner of the Freshman cup, had little experience before entering Harvard, but as a result of constant practice during the winter and spring, he was able to place third in the pole vault against the Yale Freshmen this spring, thereby winning his numerals.