Crimson Harriers Win in Fifth Meet

Harvard's undefeated cross country team continued its winning ways yesterday by sweeping to a fifth straight Greater Boston Championship at Franklin Park.

Despite the absence of Royce Shaw, Doug Hardin, and Jon Enscoe--all resting for Friday's Big Three Meet--the Crimson harriers swept four of the first five medals to outdistance second-place Northeastern by a margin of 20-61. M.I.T. was a distant third with 87 points, followed by B.U., B.C., Tufts and Brandeis.

Sophomore Dave Pottetti sped to his first victory of the season, clocking the third best time ever run on Franklin Park's "short course" (4.7 miles). Pottetti took the lead from teammate Keith Colburn just after the half-way point and bounded away from the field with an effortless stride to cross the tape with a fifteen-second lead.

It was Colburn who controlled the pace for most of the first two miles. Leading the pack through a brisk 4:28 mile, the flying junior dualed B.U.'s Pete Hoss for the lead throughout the second, with Pottetti close behind. Just before the two-mile mark, Colburn charged up a hill "like a goddam maniac," in Coach McCurdy's words. Pottetti followed suit and Hoss was left in the dust ten yards back.

Sophomore Tom Spengler, moving strongly over the last two miles, out-galloped Hoss to the wire for third place, finishing with a three-second margin in 22:40. Close behind the B.U. captain was Harvard senior Tim McLoone, McLoone, reestablishing himself as a contender for a slot in the Crimson top five, was never out of contact with Colburn, Spengler, and Hoss and finished strongly in his best race to date.

Following McLoone were Larry Joseph and Mike Scanlon of Northeastern and M.I.T.'s Larry Petro. In the absence of ace Ben Wilson, sidelined by sickness, Petro led a diminished Tech challenge.

John Heyburn closed out the Harvard scoring in ninth place. Behind him, junior Erik Roth took tenth and sophomore Howie Foye took twelfth to sandwich M.I.T.'s John Yankaskas.

Coach Bill McCurdy was pleased with his team's impressive performance, noting that the times of the first four Harvard runners were considerably lower than Shaw's winning time against Northeastern over the same course earlier in the season. Time comparisons also showed that McLoone's fifth place time equalled Jim Baker's winning mark last year, the best previous Harvard time on the course.