Cornell Edges Yale, Crimson In Relay to Win Heptagonals

PRINCETON, N.J., May 14--The 21st annual Heptagonal Games ended in a story-book finish today, but as far as Yale and Harvard were concerned, it must have been written by a Cornell man. For in a dramatic last-event mile relay victory, the Big Red edged Yale by 1-28 of a point and the Crimson by 21-23 to retain the track title it won indoors.

The sun was beginning to set on this very hot afternoon when Cornell, Harvard, Yale, and Navy lined up for the start of their section in the relay. Princeton had won the first section with a 3:18.1, and both the Big Red and the Crimson knew that it had to beat that time to win the meet. The Elis, ahead at that point, only had to list the fifth best time to capture it.

For three legs, the Ithacan's Larry Lattomus, Andy Dadegian, and Dick Stanton had maintained a five-yard lead over the Crimson's Zeb Warren, Dick Wharton, and Renny Little. On the final hand-off John Morris took off for Cornell and Dave Alpers for Harvard. Alpers, in his first race of the year, could not cut the deficit, and the Big Red won the race in 3:18 flat. Harvard's 3:18.9 was third best behind Princeton. Yale failed to place.

The final placing were: Cornell, 44 1-28; Yale, 44; Harvard, 43 2-7; Navy, 31 1-2; and Army, Penn, Princeton, Dartmouth, Brown, and Columbia in that order.

Wills Gets Sick

It was a tough day for Crimson Coach Bill McCurdy as well as for the Blue's Bob Giegengack. Last night, the favored miler, Al Wills, became unexpectedly ill and could not compete, costing the varsity valuable points. As it was, though, scrappy Phil Williams, running the best race of his life, finished a close second to Yale's Bob Schaller. The time was 4:18.1. Yale lacked sprinter Hank Thresher and half-miler Ed Hedeen.

Captain Bob Rittenburg, although capturing the broad jump with a leap of 23-5 1-4, failed to win either of the two hurdles races, finishing second in each. Joel Cohen was fifth in the highs and third in the lows. Cornell's Dick Matthewson won the former (14.7) and Navy's Wally Mosson the latter (23.8).

But even with these disappointments, McCurdy still got an amazing performance from junior Art Siler. Siler won the discus throw with a heave of 155-5 1-2, four inches more than Yale's Stew Thomson, and in the shot put, he surprised everyone by finishing second to Thomson, defeating Army's Dave Patton and Yale's Tom Henderson. The Crimson's Roger Mechanic was fifth in the discus.

Carl Goldman also came through for McCurdy by placing fourth in the hammer throw, finishing ahead of Thomson, but the star of this event was Cornell's Al Hall who tossed the weight 193-7. This would have been a record but the ring diameter was found to be too wide.