Crimson Track Tops Brown As Records Fall

Captain Jeff Huvelle, distance runner Jim Baker, hurdler Frank Haggerty and sprinter George Patterson led Harvard's track team to a 129-24 romp over visiting Brown on Saturday. Crimson performers took first place in every event except the broad jump and swept all 3 places in 5 events.

Huvelle smashed the oldest Harvard track record on the books when he won the 440-yard dash in 47.7 seconds. The old record of 48.0 was set by William Wilcox against Yale in 1915. Second-place Dave McKelvey also bettered the record by 0.2 second. Huvelle also finished second to sophomore George Patterson in the 220-yard dash.

The four-minute mile escaped Baker once again as he edged out teammate Roy Shaw in the time of 4:08.4, but he came back in the two-mile event to batter the stadium record by 6 seconds. Doug Hardin also finished under the old mark, only a second behind Baker's 8:58.

Clean Sweep

Haggerty swept both the 120-yard and 440-yard hurdle events, while Patterson won the 100-yard and 220-yard dashes.

The old mark of 9:04 was set in 1965 by Alasdair Heron of Cambridge University in the Cambridge-Oxford Harvard-Yale track meet. Hardin holds the Harvard record of 8:48.8.

Weightmen Dick Benka, Charles Ajootian, and Ron Wilson led the Crimson in the field events by placing in two events apiece. Brown was able to pick up only 5 points out of a possible 36 in the weight events.

Alternating Lead

The only real excitement of the afternoon came at the meet's end when the lead in the mile relay alternated with each lap. Harvard finally won by a second-and-a-half at the finish. Otherwise, only the contest for third in the track events were close enough to bring the crowd to its feet. Brown's runners usually were in no position to challenge for the lead.

Heralded sophomore Keith Colburn turned in several strong performances though none of them were outstanding. He pushed Huvelle and McKelvey to their record 440 before finishing third and set the pace for the first half of the 880 before he tired. Roy Saw led Trey Burns in a photo finish to capture the event for Harvard. Colburn finished the day by running the second leg of the mile relay.

Other winners for the Crimson included Steve Schoonover in the pole vault, and Frank Champi in the javelin.

No Challenge

Overall, the times and distances did not represent the best efforts that the team is capable of since Brown's performers could not push them. In the 440-yard intermediate hurdles, Brown did not enter anyone at all. Early in the meet, when Harvard already led 51-11 a small child turneed to his father and said, "Daddy, why doesn't Brown leave?" It was that kind of an afternoon.