Relay Team Misses World Mark by Seconds

Harvard's track team rewrote record books from Boston to Manhattan over the weekend, as its two-mile relay team set a meet record less than two seconds off the world mark at Madison Square Garden while the Crimson smashed four lesser marks to eke out a slim victory in the Greater Boston Championships at Northeastern.

Harvard's relay team pulled off a dramatic upset at the U.S. Track and Feld Federation Meet in New York on Friday night, running Michigan, Villanova, N.C.U., and Maryland State into the ground.

A quartet of Trey Burns, Roy Shaw, Jim Baker, and Dave McKelvey streaked around the Garden track in 7:28.1, a scant 1.7 seconds lower than the world record 7:26.4 set by Villanova in 1964.

Harvard's time bettered by five and a half seconds the Harvard mark set by Baker, Burns, McKelvey, and Jeff Huvelle a year ago and set a new Federation indoor record.

Burns ran the first leg of the race in 1:53.4. Shaw was next with a 1:50.6, followed by Baker, 1:51.5, and McKelvey, 1:52.6.

Villanova's second place relay team, which beat Harvard in the Boston Athletic Association and Philadelphia Classic meet this season, was weakened by the absence of Dave Patrick, who raced Jim Ryun in the mile and took second.

But Patrick would probably have made little difference. Villanova put together its best relay team, with Patrick anchoring for the Sun Papers' All Eastern Indoor Games on Saturday night and still ran only 7:30.8.

Harvard's narrow 64-60 victory over Northeastern in the Greater Boston meet wasn't decided until the final event Saturday afternoon. Ahead of the second-place Huskies by only three points, Harvard's relay team sped home in 3:26.3 for five first-place points and the meet victory.

It was a heart-stopping finale to the meet, which became a Harvard-North-eastern duel in the opening trials Friday as the five other Boston schools fell far behind.

Harvard was matched against North-eastern in the last of the three mile-relay heats, and needed at least third-place in the event to win its fifth consecutive Greater Boston title.

By the time the baton was passed to anchor Huvelle, the N.U. runners had built up a five-yard lead. Huvelle hung behind N..'s Mike Roberts until the final half-lap of the race. Then, to the cheers of an enthusiastic crowd, the stocky captain poured it on, caught Roberts with 15 yards to go, and beat him by a fraction to the finish.

Huvelle had earlier set one of Harvard's four meet records by roaring through the 600 in 1:12.8. Harvard's other record-breakers were Roy Shaw in the mile (4:15.4), Doug Hardin in the two-mile (9:06.6), and Steve Schoonover in the pole vault (14' 1"), who took second place on comparative misses.

Harvard's three other first-place winners were Dick Benka in the shot (56' 71/4"), John Metzger in the high hurdles (5.7), and Ron Wilson in the 35-pound weight (58'41/2").