Lynch, Chiappa, Freshmen Score in BAA; Croasdale Hits 59' in Weight; Njoku Hurt

The Harvard track team blasted out of its exam-period layoff Saturday night, winning two races and a relay in the Boston Athletic Association games.

Perhaps the best Crimson performance came not from a winner, but a fourth-place finisher. Captain Art Croasdale, competing before a tiny crowd in the afternoon field events at Northeastern, got off a 59' 6" toss in the 35-pound weight.

The throw was two feet beyond Croasdale's previous best this year and within four inches of his best ever. But veteran Bob Backus, Olympian Al Hall, and Alex Shulten of Bowdoin broke 60 feet to come in ahead of Croasdale.

Croasdale also took a second in the shot with a 53 ft., 3 in. throw, three feet behind Northeastern's Carl Wallin.

Harvard Wine Three

In the evening's running events at the Boston Garden, Keith Chiappa, Tony Lynch and the freshman mile relay team were Harvard's winners.

Chiappa and John Ogden won, the two sections of the college 880-yard run. Chiappa, who put on a big fourth-lap kick and then barely held off the challenge of Providence's Bob Powers, took first on the basis of time in an excellent 1:55.7. Ogden, who won the slower heat, placed fourth overall.

Lynch, who had stuck to the hurdles and relay this season won the college 440, his first individual flat race of the year. He set a sizzling pace for a lap and a half, with Holy Cross freshman Jack Collins on his heels.

120 yards from the tape, Collins stepped on the raised inside of the track and fell, hitting Lynch on the ankle. It caused Lynch to stumble; tired by the misstep and fast early pace, he barely held on to win by three yards in 51.3, slowest winning time in the event in 13 years.

The freshman relay team of Dave McKelvey, Bob Cook, Frank Haggerty and Jeff Huvelle got no competition from Holy Cross and B.U., and romped home in 3:23.4, 0.4 off the freshman meet record.

Photo Finish

The varsity wasn't as fortunate. John Dockery, John Parker, and Mike Hauck, handed anchor man Lynch a slight lead over Holy Cross. But Crusader anchor man Bob Credle is probably the best middle-distance man in New England; despite a 50.6 leg by Lynch, Credle charged past him in the last 10 yards to win a photo finish. The timers of the race gave Harvard a faster time than Holy Cross, but the finish judges saw it differently.

In the two-mile relay, Jim Smith whizzed up from fifth place to hand anchor man John Ogden a two-step lead. Ogden held it until the back stretch of the last lap when, apparently jostled by Syracuse's anchor man, he dropped the baton off the raised board track, behind Syracuse, Iona, and Northeastern. He retrieved it in time to finish fourth.

High jumper Chris Pardee cleared 6-3 on his first jump, then apparently went over 6-10. But the bar fell after he waited three seconds in the pit, and Pardee had to settle for fourth place behind Richard Ross of Southern, who cleared seven feet.

Aggrey Awori, who finished fourth in both the hurdles and the dash in the ago, was up against tougher fields this Knights of Columbus meet two weeks time. He was shut out of the dash final and finished fifth in the hurdles.

A couple of Eastern collegians must have caused Coach Bill McCurdy some concern as he thought about Harvard's late-season tournament chances. Navy's Cortland Gray tied Harrison Dillard's meet record and beat Elias and Ralph Boston to win the 45-yard hurdles in 5.5. Frank Costello of Maryland became the first Easterner to jump higher than Pardee this year, clearing 6-10 1/4 to take second place.

McCurdy got more bad news when high jumper Charlie Njoku, one of half-a dozen Eastern collegians who have cleared 6-6 this winter, pulled a groin muscle while clearing 6-2. He will be out for at least 10 days, and possibly longer.