Harvard Underdog In Heps

Julio Piazza will eat pancakes for breakfast this morning. Then he and the Penn cross country team, which he captains, will board a bus for New York City, where the Quakers are favored to win the Heptagonals for the first time in their history.

The Heps, which Harvard has dominated in the past, is expected to be a close three-way race between Penn, Harvard, and Cornell. It starts at 2 p. m. at Van Cortlandt Park.

This meet, which determines the Ivy League championship, is the one all three teams have been looking forward to since training camp. "This is the one [coach Jim] Tuppeny wants," Piazza said Wednesday night. And Crimson coach Bill McCurdy wants it just as badly.

Penn has to be favored. Five weeks ago on the same course, the Quakers crushed the confident Crimson by taking places two through six behind Harvard's Tom Spengler. The Crimson went out fast that day, but died in the middle of the race, and the Quakers left their opponents far behind.

"I was going crazy because I knew we could beat them," McCurdy asserted last week.

Rungs

Such hopes are certainly justified. Since then the Crimson has steadily improved in the middle of its ladder, and no one has been able to beat Spengler.

At the same time, Penn has not done quite as well as Harvard thought it might. No team has been able to top the Quakers, but some have come close. And two of their top five finishers against Harvard-Elliott Rodgers and Frank O'Connor-have had injuries. Piazza has also had a disappointing season, partially because of an infected foot.

Penn ran quite well, however, while losing to powerful Villanova last weekend, and Piazza feels that he is finally ready for a strong race.

The course is also a factor. Penn is more used to the hill running necessary on Van Cortiandt, and Harvard's sophomores have yet to run well there in a big meet. "Being at Van Cortlandt will help me a lot," Julio explained. "I ran on it for four years before coming here, and my high school coach will be there."

Whatever Harvard's chances to win are, they will be minimal if a slight injury to Spengler flares up during the race. Monday he reinjured the hip which forced him to miss the end of the 1969 season, and he has taken the week off. "It's just about on the verge of tearing," teammate Bob Seals said yesterday. It appears that it will not hinder him today, but no one is sure.

While Spengler is expected to battle Penn's Karl Thornton and Cornell's Jon Anderson for the lead, Harvard's success will probably be determined by the running of its next three-Seals, John Quirk, and Mark Connolly. They are the ones most responsible for the Crimson's recent improvement.