Runners Overcome Providence; Hewlett First by Quarter Mile

Sophmore Walt Hewlett ran away with the race, but only strong finishes by John Ogden and Dave Allen saved the Harvard cross-country team from a defeat at the hands of Providence College today.

With about a mile left in the four-mile race, Hewlett was leading by thirty seconds, with Crimson captain Ed Meehan and junior Bill Crain fighting the Friars' Barry Brown for second. Seven Providence runners came next, followed by Ogden and Allen.

But in the turn going into the last straightaway, Ogden whissed past several Providence men to finish a strong sixth, and Allen came on to wind up eleventh. Had both men stayed in the pack, the Friars would have won the meet, but their comebacks gave Harvard a 24-32 victory.

Meehan, running with both ankles heavily padded to protect his sore Achilles tendons, outkicked Brown in the last hundred-yard straightaway to win by two seconds. Crain was fourth, nine seconds behind Brown.

But some 58 seconds before, with Meehan still out of sight and a quarter-mile behind, Hewlett had come padding softly across the finish line. His time was 20:27, just 20 seconds off the course record held by Central Connecticut's Ed Keefe. That's quite a showing, when you consider that Hewlett was not pushed and that Keefe is probably the best long-distance runner in New England after John Kelley.

Meehan and Crain also ran well. Both have suffered recent injuries, and when they return to top form, they and Hewlett should press each other to extraordinary times.

Hewlett Starts Fast

Hewlett took the lead from the start, and was pushed for a few moments by Brown, Crain, and Crimson sophomore Langdon Burwell. But Hewlett quickly began to pull away from the others, and he led by thirty seconds after completing a mile and a half.

Burwell ran with the leaders for the first three miles before fading into the pack. The other Crimson runners showed little over the unfamiliar, hilly 4.1-mile course at Franklin Park.

Earlier, the Providence freshmen handed the Crimson a 36-16 cross-country defeat. Friar runners took first, second, third, fifth, and sixth, with only Jim Smith placing for the Yardlings. Niel Houston took seventh place, and David Rice placed eighth for the Crimson.