Varsity Harriers to Face Stiff Test In Heptagonal Meet at NYC Today

The varsity cross country team will be fighting for third place today in the Heptagonal Meet at Van Cortlandt Park. Army is a virtual shoe-in, with five juniors who have all run faster than Dyke Benjamin on the New York course; and Navy, second last year, should not be far behind.

The most realistic goal for the Crimson is third place and an unofficial championship of the Ivy League. But to win this "Ivy League Race," the harriers will be battling the same Yale squad which beat them last week, as well as top-notch runners from Brown and Cornell.

The men to beat are Army's Healy and Green, Columbia's Jose Iglesias, Penn's sophomore Dick Tracy, Cornell's Nat Cravener, and Brown's Bob Lowe.

"A championship meet is a different proposition from a dual meet," Coach Bill McCurdy said. "We've had some trouble with depth this year and last year too--that hurts when you have 70 people line up for the start. Our fifth runner was twelfth against Yale, but 30 or 40 people might have passed him in a championship meet."

"We've been riding a slim line in the Heps both last year and this," McCurdy said. "We start out with a lot of depth, but it gets whittled down by the end of the season so that if any of our top five goes, the whole meet goes."

Benjamin has been working hard, according to McCurdy, and should be "tough." Were he to win tomorrow, it would be the first time a Crimson runner has won all his races during the course of a season.

McCurdy termed Jim Schlaeppi's race against Yale "a superlative emotional effort," and could only hope that his injured foot holds up today. Jed Fitzgerald has been ill with the grippe and his performance is uncertain also.

"Unsung Hero"

Willie Thompson is ready to run. "Thompson is the unsung hero of the squad," McCurdy said. "He's been up there all season." Eddie Martin's problem is condidtioning, but he has had more practice since Yale.

The squad left yesterday afternoon for New York and will run at 4 p.m. today. A team which missed an unbeaten season by one point, the harriers will be running hard this afternoon.