Runners Top Yale, 84-70; Finish With Perfect Mark

Harvard's varsity track team finished off a perfect season in brilliant fashion Saturday as they captured a decisive 84-70 victory over Yale at New Haven. The win gave the Crimson a 5-0 dual meet record, in addition to victories in the Greater Boston and Heptagonal championships.

Most of the pre-meet predictions centered on whether Harvard's field men could dominate the meet more than Yale's runners, and the outcome clearly shows that the Crimson field crew was overwhelmingly predominant.

Harvard won six of eight field events, piling up a 54-18 edge in the process, and captured 18 of the 24 places in the events. Captain Dick Benka, ending his career in magnificent style, was the winner of the meet's outstanding performer award as he captured both the shot put (56 ft. 4 1/2 in.) and the discus (179 ft. 6 in.). His toss in the discus set a Harvard-Yale meet record.

Ed Nosal and Frank Champi completed a Crimson sweep in the weight throws, as Nosal captured the hammer throw with 171 ft. 2 in. distance and Champi outthrew teammate Richie Szaro in the javelin with a heave of 228 ft. 11 in. Yale's Tom Neville, who placed second in the discus, was the only Bulldog to place in the weight events.

Crimson jumpers won seven of 12 places in their events as Skip Hare and Jim Coleman both came through with victories. Hare edged teammate Bob Galliers in the broad jump with a distance of 24 ft. 3/4 in.

The Field

Coleman repeated his victory of last year by winning the high jump with a 6 ft. 4 in. leap. The Crimson's Don Wilkes grabbed third in the event. The Elis captured only two field event victories, the pole vault and triple jump.

Yale--as expected--was predominant in the running events, but not nearly enough to overcome the huge lead the Crimson built up in the field events. The Crimson won three of the nine running events, including two in which they were defeated by the Eli's last week in the Heps.

The most exciting race of the day was the mile run, in which the Crimson's Tom Spengler edged Eli Frank Shorter in a photo-finish. Both performers finished with times of 4:11.0. followed by Harvard's Roy Shaw a few feet back at 4:11.1.

Spengler was a dark horse choice in the race, in which Shaw and Shorter were figured to be the prime contestants. He trailed the two leaders until the last 40 yards of the race, but put on a strong finishing kick to pass both runners.

In the 880-yard run, the Crimson's Keith Colburn gained revenge over the Eli's Steve Bittner by winning in 1:51.0. Bittner, who defeated Colburn in the Heps, finished third Saturday. Harvard padded its winning margin in the meet's last event as Colburn, Shaw, Tom Downer and John Gillis teamed up for a mile relay victory in 3:15.6.

The victory was the Crimson's sixth straight over the Eli, and gave Harvard a 37-35-1 edge in the 78-year-old series.