H-Y Track Team Favored Over Oxford-Cambridge

After months of anticipation and weeks of ballyhoo, Herb Elliott will not run the mile this afternoon. But the biennial clash between Harvard and Yale on the one hand and Oxford and Cambridge on the other at 5 p.m. in the Stadium will still be worth seeing.

America is favored in the 19th renewal of this classic encounter, but the English will field their strongest team ever. Harvard and Yale defeated the English, first places to 7, in 1959 at White City Stadium in London.

Even before the beginning of the indoor track season last December, Mark Mullin of Harvard was looking forward to a clash with Elliott, the world record holder at 3:54.5, in the mile. After Mullin's 4:07.1 in the Heptagonal Games established him as the greatest miler in Ivy League history, the hullaballoo over his meeting with Elliott began to grow.

However, those who bought tickets in the anticipation of watching a battle between the best milers on both teams, and those who thought they were going to see the East's first four-minute mile, will not be pleased this afternoon. And there is no reason why they should be.

Elliott, fifth in an international 800 meters Saturday, will run the 880 today, not the mile. Members of the English team hinted as soon as they arrived that Elliott would at best double in the 880 and two-mile, but nothing was said publicly until late yesterday.

Still, the meet offers considerable excitement. In the 880, the first running event, Cambridge's Elliott and J.B. Holt of Oxford will face Harvard captain Fred Howard and Yale leader Jim Stack. No matter who wins, the meet record of 1:51.3 and the Stadium mark of 1:49.8 seem doomed. Mullin should romp in the mile against Oxford's Stephen James (best time 4:05.1) and Rodger Bell.

Jay Luck of Yale is the key figure in the dashes and hurdles. A 9.7 sprinter. Luck should win the 100, and Luck (23.3) and Tom Blodgett of Harvard (23.5) should have the 220 low hurdles all to themselves.

The 220 shapes up as a battle between Yale's Dave Bain (21.4) and Adrian Metcalfe of Oxford (21.5), and the 120 high hurdles will probably be decided by a matter of inches among Blodgett, Cambridge's John Parker, and Yale's Bill Flippin, all 14.4 performers.

Stack will probably try to double in the 330 and 440, and the quarter-mile race between the gritty Yale captain and Metcalfe should be a hell-raiser. Bobby Mack of Yale, the fastest two-miler in astern history at 8:53.6, should win his event, but Tim Briault of Cambridge and John Boulter of Oxford will threaten.

In the field events, the shot put seems likely to be a close contest: Cambridge's David Harrison is an even match for Sarge Nichols and Steve Cohen of Harvard. Harvard and Yale should salt away the discus, pole vault, and high jump, while the English are safe bets in the javelin.

A former Harvard captain now competing for the English, Pat Liles of Cambridge, could snatch the broad jump away from Crimson freshman Chris Ohiri. Liles, incidentally, is in his third H-Y-O-C meet; high jumper Al Leisenring, once of Yale and now of Cambridge, is another expatriate.

In 1959, it took a thrilling win in the meet's final event, the 440 relay, to determine the winner. History may repeat itself today.

Even before the beginning of the indoor track season last December, Mark Mullin of Harvard was looking forward to a clash with Elliott, the world record holder at 3:54.5, in the mile. After Mullin's 4:07.1 in the Heptagonal Games established him as the greatest miler in Ivy League history, the hullaballoo over his meeting with Elliott began to grow.

However, those who bought tickets in the anticipation of watching a battle between the best milers on both teams, and those who thought they were going to see the East's first four-minute mile, will not be pleased this afternoon. And there is no reason why they should be.

Elliott, fifth in an international 800 meters Saturday, will run the 880 today, not the mile. Members of the English team hinted as soon as they arrived that Elliott would at best double in the 880 and two-mile, but nothing was said publicly until late yesterday.

Still, the meet offers considerable excitement. In the 880, the first running event, Cambridge's Elliott and J.B. Holt of Oxford will face Harvard captain Fred Howard and Yale leader Jim Stack. No matter who wins, the meet record of 1:51.3 and the Stadium mark of 1:49.8 seem doomed. Mullin should romp in the mile against Oxford's Stephen James (best time 4:05.1) and Rodger Bell.

Jay Luck of Yale is the key figure in the dashes and hurdles. A 9.7 sprinter. Luck should win the 100, and Luck (23.3) and Tom Blodgett of Harvard (23.5) should have the 220 low hurdles all to themselves.

The 220 shapes up as a battle between Yale's Dave Bain (21.4) and Adrian Metcalfe of Oxford (21.5), and the 120 high hurdles will probably be decided by a matter of inches among Blodgett, Cambridge's John Parker, and Yale's Bill Flippin, all 14.4 performers.

Stack will probably try to double in the 330 and 440, and the quarter-mile race between the gritty Yale captain and Metcalfe should be a hell-raiser. Bobby Mack of Yale, the fastest two-miler in astern history at 8:53.6, should win his event, but Tim Briault of Cambridge and John Boulter of Oxford will threaten.

In the field events, the shot put seems likely to be a close contest: Cambridge's David Harrison is an even match for Sarge Nichols and Steve Cohen of Harvard. Harvard and Yale should salt away the discus, pole vault, and high jump, while the English are safe bets in the javelin.

A former Harvard captain now competing for the English, Pat Liles of Cambridge, could snatch the broad jump away from Crimson freshman Chris Ohiri. Liles, incidentally, is in his third H-Y-O-C meet; high jumper Al Leisenring, once of Yale and now of Cambridge, is another expatriate.

In 1959, it took a thrilling win in the meet's final event, the 440 relay, to determine the winner. History may repeat itself today.

In the field events, the shot put seems likely to be a close contest: Cambridge's David Harrison is an even match for Sarge Nichols and Steve Cohen of Harvard. Harvard and Yale should salt away the discus, pole vault, and high jump, while the English are safe bets in the javelin.

A former Harvard captain now competing for the English, Pat Liles of Cambridge, could snatch the broad jump away from Crimson freshman Chris Ohiri. Liles, incidentally, is in his third H-Y-O-C meet; high jumper Al Leisenring, once of Yale and now of Cambridge, is another expatriate.

In 1959, it took a thrilling win in the meet's final event, the 440 relay, to determine the winner. History may repeat itself today.