Fall Campaign Proves Harrier Strength

The cross country team this fall matched a few superlative individual efforts with a great number of consistently strong races by the middle men, dropped one race it shouldn't have, won one it wasn't supposed to, and in the long run pulled out a better than average record from a season that began disastrously and ended unfortunately.

The opening loss to Cornell was indeed questionable, for even Cornell's eventual triumph over the Crimson in the Heptagonals in New York City--but a scant two point margin--falls to erase the impression that the Harriers met a run-of-the-mill team that was inexplicably up for the day. In winning, the Big Red's Frank Brockman bettered his previous best over the course by more than a minute. The top Crimson runner, as usual, Mark Mullin, beat Crimson great Dyke Benjamin's time of two years ago by some ten seconds, but it wasn't enough.

Once Cornell was out of the way, things began looking up for the Harriers, who with the aid of track captain Fred Howard moved through a string of fine victories, including an outstanding 25-32 win over a slightly favored Dartmouth team, until the end-of-the-season disappointments in the Yale-Princeton triangular and the Heps. In dual and triangular meets over the course of the fall, the Crimson out-ran two teams by small margins, ran five more completely into the ground, and lost to only two: Yale and Cornell.

Yale and Cornell beat the Crimson again in the Heps, as did Brown--unquestionably a better team to begin with--and Army, another pre-race power. The Crimson repeated all its triumphs over former opponents, finishing within eight points of third place.

The secret to the team's successes this year was an unbroken series of outstanding performances by Mark Mullin. His second in the Big Three meet this year, step-for-step duel and eventual victory over Dartmouth's Tom Laris, and battle over most of the Heps with Brown's victorious Bobby Lowe speak for themselves.

The savior of the team, however, was not Mullin. Mullin was expected to be good and he came through. But Howard, who never even ran the event until after the Cornell loss, turned in a very consistent record for the year, usually finishing a little behind sophomore Ed Hamlin and just ahead of captain Jed Fitzgerald.

Returning Lettermen

Hamlin, evidently, will be back next year, as will Mullin and Greg Baldwin, the fourth Crimson finisher in the Heps, with a 31st. Bob Knapp, who best them both in the Yale-Princeton meet, will also be returning next fall.

Of the other Crimson runners, Jack Benjamin, Jim Bonnar, Gerry Webb, Don Kirkland, John Evans, and Wes Hildreth, only the last two are seniors.

A good crop of freshmen coming up completes the cross country team's rather auspicious picture for next fall's campaign. Yardling captain Eddie Meehan won a good percentage of his races this year including the freshman Big Three--in this case by almost 200 yards. Mike Platt took a third in the same race, edging out fourth-place teammate Jeff Peck. All three will be strong contenders for positions among the top twelve next year.