Crimson Track Team to Threaten Favorites in IC4A Championships

The varsity track team will be facing the best performers in the East today and tomorrow as it enters the IC4A championships at Randall's Island, N. Y. Penn State should win the title, but Yale, Maryland, defending champion Villanova, and the Crimson all could challenge.

Last spring, Crimson hurdler Joel Landau paced the Crimson by winning both the high and low hurdles, and a healthy Landau would be a sure bet to repeat his double triumph against mediocre opposition this year. But Landau has been hobbled all season long by recurrent foot troubles, and his status is in doubt.

Dyke Benjamin's 9:08.5 clocking in the two-mile is overshadowed by the 8:58.9 credited to Penn State's Dick Engelbrink. However, Benjamin is well rested, and he will probably be running against Engelbrink without the exhausting effects of a previous mile race. No one really knows what Benjamin can do if he concentrates on the two-mile; the result may be a pleasant surprise for the Crimson.

Penn State's Ed Moran should dominate the mile, since he has run 4:02.1 to lead the nation's collegians in this event. The Crimson's Jed Fitzgerald could place, however, Moran, with a 1:49.6 to his credit, and teammate Chick Kink, who has done 1:49.8, should finish one-two in the 880.

Crimson captain Albie Gordon has a slim chance in the 440 against a group of excellent performers led by Basil Ince of Tufts, who turned in a 46.7 effort last Saturday. Frank Yeomans is the varsity's best hope in the sprints.

Two Crimson hammer throwers, Stan Doten and Jim Doty, are around the 180-ft. mark and could score well. Doten and John Bronstein could place in the discus, but the varsity's two 50-ft shot putters, Hank Abbot and Steve Cohen, may find themselves out of the running.

Varsity pole vaulter Tom Blodgett is just six inches away from the very first rank of college vaulters after clearing 13 ft., 6 in. in the Heps. The rest of the varsity field event crew may run into trouble, although undefeated John deKiewiet could be a factor in the high jump.