Cross Country Team Challenges 'All-Comers' To Three-Mile, 20-Minute Race Along River

If you're one of those people who sometimes feels like going out and running three miles, you get your chance at 4:30 p.m. Friday, when the cross-country team plays host to the University in the annual all-comers' handicap race.

Just in case no one in the University does feel like a twenty-minute race, the College's athletic coaches have drafted a few starters. A platoon from the wrestling team, a few ice hockey players, and some of the basketball squad will run. Veteran distance runner and Dunster House tutor Erich Segal is rounding up a Faculty group.

Handicaps will be assigned on the basis of an individual's racing experience. The varsity cross-country team starts from scratch, the freshmen runners get a two-minute advantage, and others are assigned handicaps according to the track coaches' estimate of their skill.

Last year varsity runner Ed Meehan finished first, but the race was won by a sometime freshman pole-vaulter named Bill Hill, who started with a five-minute handicap. The freshmen cross-country squad won the team championship.

The course starts at Weld Boat House and runs along the Charles for a mile and a half. Then it doubles back and returns to the starting point.

Coach Bill McCurdy says he'd like to see as many entrants as possible. "If President Pusey wants to come, we'll guarantee him a large handicap," he said. "We hope to get some Radcliffe girls too. If we do, I may run myself."