Trackmen to Encounter Formidable Yale, Navy

Maybe this year Harvard will actually win the Heptagonal championship. The Crimson track team will have its next-to-last chance--and its best to date--to topple Yale under the Jim Stack-Tommy Carroll regime tomorrow afternoon at Philadelphia's Franklin Field.

If Bulldog hurdler Jay Luck, out since the Penn Relays with a pulled leg muscle, is unable to perform tomorrow, the Elis will lose 10 sure points and perhaps their margin of victory. Even a Yale victory in the climactic mile relay--by no means a sure thing without Luck--would leave the Elis about three points behind the Crimson, if all goes well.

Yale coach Bob Giegengack is obviously worried. The lovable "Gack" has had nothing to say about Luck's condition. It seems certain that Luck will be at less than full speed, and the Yalies will have their work cut out for them.

Actually, the catch for the Crimson lies in the phrase "if all goes well." Things have a way of not going well for the varsity in Heptagonal meets. If the Crimson falls short of its expectations, the crippled Bulldogs or a healthy Navy team may take the Heps crown.

The mile can be the key event tomorrow. The Crimson trio of Mark Mullin, Jed Fitzgerald, and Ed Hamlin, who finished one-two-three in 4:11.1, 4:12.6. and 4:13.1 against Brown and Dartmouth last week, will meet Yale's sensational Bobby Mack.

The battle between Mack, who ran 4:10.5 in the Penn Relays, and Mullin should be a hot one, and could produce a 4:07-4:08 clocking.

And the Crimson cannot afford a repeat of this winter's weight throw tragedy when the same performers meet again in the hammer throw. Stan Doten and Ted Bailey should be first and second, and Roger Wilson should place. But Jud Sage of Navy looms in the background.

Three Crimson place-winners in the broad jump would be nice, in the persons of Tom Blodgett, All Albright, and Zeke Azikiwe, but first is likely to go to Scotty Thorell of Navy.

Captain Fred Howard leads the list of 880 entrants with a 1:51.4 performance, but it is too much to hope that he can whip Carroll of Yale. Still, he might.

As usual, the varsity will count on workhorse Tom Blodgett to pad its total. Blodgett could win the high hurdles in the absence of Luck. He could also finish second in the broad jump and third in the low hurdles.

One of the most exciting races of the day may be the 440, in which Princeton's Dick Edmunds, a 46.6 quarter miler, will try once again to take a Heps title away from Stack of Yale, who is not nearly so fast but simply refuses to be beaten.