Penn Meet Crucial for Harriers

Harvard is a slight favorite today in a meet with Penn and Columbia at 12:30 p.m. in Van Cortlandt Park, New York.

The Crimson and the Quakers have been the top two teams in the Ivy League in recent years, and both squads appear to be stronger this fall. Once again, Columbia's role will likely be limited to varying the color scheme at the starting line.

"You definitely have to consider Harvard the favorite," Penn captain Julio Piazza said Thursday night. Piazza won this meet last year as a sophomore, but Harvard's runners were bunched behind him and finished in front of the core of Penn's team to win easily.

Top Man

Piazza is still the Quakers' top man, and the battle for first will probably be between him and the Crimson's Tom Spengler and Mike Koerner, who finished one-two in Harvard's win Wednesday over Northeastern.

"Koerner's the one who's going to have to be reckoned with," Piazza claimed. "He was really a surprise after his freshman year."

But there are several runners on both teams who could break up these three. Harvard's other top men are Bob Seals, John Quink, Mark Connolly, Tom New, and Howie Foye, Penn will be counting on Bob Childs, Karl Thornton, and Elliot Rdgers, Both teams depend on groupin, and it is in this ability that the Crimson's sophomores give Harvard a distinet advantage.

Piazza will be hoping to avert the trouble he had last weekend, when he virtually blacked out during the last two miles of a race with Lehigh and finished seventh. The 95-degree heat was apparently a factor in his misfortune.

Healthy Jog

The Penn captain jogged most of this week and seems to be healthy. "I felt like I was coming around today," he said Thursday.

Both teams have been hurt by the loss of previous standouts. Penn has lost Jack Anderson and Dan Stevens, who was originally elected captain. Harvard is running without Jon Enscoe and Dave Pottetti, though the Quakers are traveling to New York unsure if the two Crimson runners will compete.

The freshmen also race today, but they may find themselves racing more against Columbia than against Penn. The Crimson is hindered both by a lack of talent and of practice time. The Quakers, on the other hand, have several superb runners including New York's Dennis Fikes, one of the nation's top high school seniors last year.

Harvard's greatest need now is the development of Rick Rojas, Bob Linsky, Jerry Hines, and Jim Hadloy.