Trackmen Gain Surprise Second Place in IC4A's

Is there no end to the miracles the varsity track team can perform? After a totally unbelievable upset of Yale May 20, the Crimson headed to New York this weekend for the IC4A championships with nothing to lose but plane fare. There, in Harvard's finest IC4A showing since 1909, the varsity piled up 29 1/2 points to finish second, behind only Villanova among the Eastern powers.

Jumbo Elliott's great Wildcats, led by double winner Frank Budd, were off by themselves with 46 points. But behind the Crimson were such trumped-up aggregations as Maryland (24 1/2). Penn State (18 1/2) St. John's (18), Michigan State (14), and Heptagonal and indoor IC4A champion Yale (13 1/2).

A search of the record books unearthed the information that Harvard's point total was its highest since 1909. That was the year the Crimson last won the IC4A crown, although it still leads the all-time list with 13 championships. As far as anyone can tell, the varsity hasn't finished as high as second since 1910.

The Crimson went into the IC4A's expecting little; anything after the Yale meet seemed likely to be an anti-climax to a season that already held all it could. But the team's relaxed attitude paid off, and no one was more surprised than the squad itself and coaches Bill McCurdy and Ed Stowell. The Crimson was unfazed by the rain and cold that forced both trials and finals to be crammed into one day and made conditions miserable.

Mullin Loses Mile by Six Inches

Saturday actually started in disappointing fashion for the varsity, as Spike Paranya of Wosleyan edged Mark Mullin by six inches in the mile. Mullin led most of the way, with quarter times of 60.8, 2:06.3, and 3:14.5, until the final stretch, when Paranya just managed to pull ahead.

Both runners were clocked in 4:15.9, not bad in the gooey going. The Crimson's Ed Hamlin stayed with Mullin for three quarters, but fell back.

But the Crimson scored consistently all afternoon, and actually led after 12 events. Captain Fred Howard was third in the 880 at 1:57.1 after being boxed, and Tom Blodgett took fourth in the high hurdles at 15.2. Anchored by Larry Repsher in 49.9, the mile relay squad was fifth in 3:23.2, as favored Villanova finished out of the money.

The Crimson was superb in the field events. Stan Doten gave the varsity its only first with a 189 ft., 10 in, heave in the hammer, as Ted Bailey took second and Roger Wilson fifth. John Bronstein was fifth in the discus at 151 ft., 6 in.

Cohen, DeLone Place in Shot Put

Steve Cohen came through with a surprising performance to finish second in the shot put with a 52 ft., 11 1/4 in. effort, and Rick DeLone added a fifth.

In the Crimson's first meet of the spring, Marty Beckwith was second in the high jump with a leap of 5 ft., 9 1/2 in. Saturday, he cleared 6 ft., 4 in. for the second week in a row, to tie for second place--one inch behind John Thomas of B.U.--and clinch a berth on the Harvard-Yale squad that will face Oxford and Cambridge. With all this at stake, Beckwith made 6 ft., 2 in. on his third try, and then soared over 6 ft., 4 in. on his first attempt.

Yale's collapse was complete. Tommy Carroll dropped out of his 880 heat after falling 20 yards behind everybody, and Jim Stack ran about 2:06 in his.