Alvord Sparks Crimson Thinclads To 97-57 Victory Over Princeton

Junior sprinter Chris Alvord revived the Harvard track team after disappointments in the field events Saturday afternoon at Princeton, and the Crimson cindermen went on to a 97-57 dual victory.

"For the first meet of the year, we were reasonably satisfied," coach Bill McCurdy said yesterday. "But we've got a ways to go before we establish a claim to the Heps."

After trailing Herm Stevenson to the wire by 0.1 second in the 100, Alvord edged the Tigers' Rich Levandowski by the same margin in the 220. Stevenson and Alvord had been battling each other through the curve in the 220, but then Stevenson pulled up lame and dropped out.

Alvord's unexpected win gave the Crimson a comfortable lead after some tense moments earlier. With a chilling 35 m.p.h. wind playing havoc in the javelin and discus, Princeton jolted the Harvard pre-meet calculations by matching the Crimson point for point.

Then, in the meet's biggest upset, heavily favored Ed Nosal dropped to third place in the hammer behind the Tigers' Tom Ellis and Skip O'Hern.

Ben Johnson followed Alvord's victory in the 220 with a surprising win over Tom Foucher in the high hurdles to insure the victory. Johnson found himself suddenly alone after fighting Foucher head to head when Foucher got entangled in a hurdle and stopped.

The Crimson widened the point spread considerably when it won not one, but both of the relays. The sprint foursome flew to a 43.0 win over a Tiger squad that sorely missed Stevenson, and then the mile relay team pulled out a judge's decision in a 3:21.1 dead heat.

McCurdy was pleased and surprised. "I can't recall when we opened the season with a sprint relay time that fast," he said.

Harvard grabbed an early lead when Noel Hare and Bob Galliers swept the long jump. The same two merely exchanged finishes in the triple jump.

The distance performance was flawless Saturday, as Harvard took all three places in the mile and two-mile, and first and second in the 880.