Renaissance for Runners: One of 4 Heps Favorites

Nobody will believe it, but it's really the same team.

The same Harvard cross-country squad that was whipped earlier in the season by Providence, Northeastern, and Brown is one of the favorites in today's prestigious ten-team Heptagonal championship at Van Cortlandt Park in New York.

The Ivy winner of the Heps will take the League title.

Ever since losing to the Bruins, 22-33, last month, the Crimson harriers have been on a rampage. They blanked strong Cornell and mediocre Dartmouth, wallopped powerful squads from Yale and Princeton, and just Tuesday ran away with the G.B.C. title.

Sophomore sensation Doug Hardin won all of those races, but he had won all the others too--including the ones the team lost. The big change in the squad didn't occur on top but in the middle, where cross-country meets are won.

Jim Smith, Bob Stempson, and Tim McLoone have all improved consiredably since the start of the season. McLoone, a not-too-highly-regarded sophomore at the start of the season, finished sixth in the G.B.C.'s.

The whole team seems to have a new enthusiasm, as if the season started all over again with Cornell. They are jumping out fast and getting away from the pack, and the new tactics are working better than their old style of hanging back and coming on strong at the finish.

Army is Favored

The team is going to have to move out fast to win the Heps. Army, the defending champs with their whole squad returning, will be favored if healthy. But the two top Cadet harriers -- Jim Warner and Paul DeCoursey -- have been mysteriously absent from recent Army meets, and there is a good chance they will miss the Heps entirely.

If Army runs without Warner and DeCoursey, Navy will take over the favorite's role. The Middies have real power on top, with Jim Dare and Buzz Lawlor. But they have little else. With hardly any strength in the secondary, Navy is susceptible to bunching. And bunching is what Brown knows how to do best.

The Bruins, led by Chip Ennis, could put all five of their top men among the first 15 finishers and win the championship.

That is Harvard's strategy too. The Crimson must get three or four runners in the top ten and five in 15 to win it. And it's been a long time since the trophy came to Cambridge -- ten years in fact.