Trackmen Enter Millrose, BAA Meets

The future of Harvard's track team will be a lot less cloudy after the Crimson performs in two big indoor meets this week.

In particular, Coach Bill McCurdy will be able to tell just what he can expect from Aggrey Awori this year. Last year the former Ugandan Olympic sprinter set five University indoor records and was Heptagonal champion in both the 60-yard hurdles and the 60-yard dash.

But this season Awori has yet to win a race. He lost the dash to Chris Chirt and the hurdles to sophomore Tony Lyach in the Army meet, and was shut out of both finals in the Knights of Columbus games earlier this month.

This week Awori will be attempting the startling feat of running both the hurdles and the sprints first in the Millrose games in New York Thursday night and then in the B.A.A. meet in the Boston Garden Saturday.

In New York he will meet the world's fastest sprinter, Bob Hayes, in the 60-dash, but won't have to face Hayes Jones in the hurdles. In the B.A.A. Jones, who has won 49 consecutive indoor races, will head a field that includes Olympic silver medalist Willie May as well as Awori.

Awori in good shape probably means two Heptagonal championships for Harvard later this year. If the sprinter doesn't reach top form, however, the Crimson will need some fantastic performances to win the Heps.

Next to Awori, Harvard's best hope for a first place in the Millrose Games rests with the two-mile relay team of Ed Meehan, John Ogden. Kelth Chiappa and Bill Crain. Meehan thinks the team could best the University record for the event by ten seconds and tough Holy Cross and Brown teams should push the Crimson runners.

The other Crimson entries in the Millrose Games include high jumper Chris Pardee, shotputter Art Croasdale (who faces a field including Parry O'Brien and Gary Gubner), and the mile relay team of Lee Parker, John Parker, John Dockery, and Dick Briggs.

In the B.A.A. games Saturday night the Crimson has a couple of dark horses. A two-mile field paced by Tom O'Rlordan, who won the event in 1962, and national 5000-meter record holder Peter McArdle might get some competition from sophomore star Walt Hewlett, the All-American cross-country runner who's making his indoor debut.

In the 1000-yard run, Ed Meehan takes on a star-studded field including world on a star-studded field including world record holder Bill Crothers of Canada and U.S. half-mile champion Jim Dupree. Meehan finished just three yards back of Crothers in the K of C Games 1000, but the Canadian's time in that race was 22:10.7, more than four seconds off his best.

Meehan says he can run "much faster" than the unofficial University record time of 2:11.6 he turned in in that race; he'll have to do that to keep up with Crothers and Dupree.

Ogden had a good chance of winning the New England College half mile, but Chiappa will probably be up against Yale's Wendell Mottley in the 440. Mottley turned in a world record 55.5 in the 500-yard run in the K of C games.

Pardee and pole vaulter Jay Mahaney will go in the field events, though neither is a likely contender. Pardee is in a high jump field that includes John Thomas; Mahaney is up against several vaulters who have bettered 16 feet. If Pardee equals his best jump ever (6 ft. 8 in.) he might take a place.

Crimson track fans will be especially interested in the freshman, mile relay. The Yardling quartet of Tom Robinson, Neil Houston, Andy Blackwell, and George Patterson whizzed to a Harvard freshman record time of 3.26.8 in the K of C games, better than many varsity teams ran in the same meet