Falling Off The Edge

In a paper on Marx last year, my roommate noted that the problem with capitalism is that what a person has (i.e., money) is more important than what he is.

This is sometimes true with sports. What a team has for a record does not always correspond to the kind of team it is.

Take cross country, for example. The squad is basically sound. It began the season with seven returning lettermen. In addition, it had one sophomore who looked like he'd lead the team and two more who promised to be strong back up men.

And despite all this, the harriers have had their worst season in years. Their record stands at seven wins and three losses, and they placed sixth in the Hops last Saturday.

Part of the problem has been injuries. To begin with, three of the team's top runners--Jeff Brokaw, George Barker and Bobby Seals--haven't been able to run all season. Barker and Seals were all Ivy last year. Brokaw was injured during the cross country season last year, too, but performed very well for the track team. In addition, Mark Connolly and last year's leading freshman, Andy Campbell, have been out all year.

That's only the beginning. After leading the team in the early meets, sophomore Ric Rojas was out with the flu for three weeks. When he finally came back, he was weakened and couldn't return to his old form. The virus also affected Capt. Mike Koerner, sophomore Fred Linsk and John Quirk.

"It's been a frustrating season," coach Bill McCurdy said earlier this week. "It's just incredible. I feel like I'm living in a horror story with the sickness and injury thing. If we could have been on the fortunate side of the health issue, we would have done much better."

This is certainly true, but there's another factor. Harvard doesn't have runners this year like Keith Colburn and Tom Spengler, but it is a solid team. What's happened, as a long time cross country fan told this reporter last week, is that the level of the Ivy League has risen considerably. In particular, Penn has done a lot of recruiting, and it shows. Their performance throughout the year and their effortless win in the Heps in particular, are monuments to the efforts of controversial Penn coach Jim Tuppeny in this area.

(It is of parenthetical interest as far as Tuppeny is concerned that only four harriers survive from a 12-member, undefeated freshman squad. Tuppeny said the exodus was due to "personal reasons" and added, "For many it's merely a matter of whether they're willing to do the work to achieve success." Two of the runners said they left because the fun had been removed from running.

In addition to Penn, Dartmouth and Princeton have markedly improved, and Cornell was especially strong all season long. To say the least, the Crimson is going to have it tougher in the future.

This season was not without its high spots. In the Cornell meet, which the harriers lost 23-32, sophomore Fred Linsk showed his potential, taking fourth in a meet Rajas couldn't run and Koerner couldn't finish (both due to The Virus). Right behind Linsk were Marshall Jones, a solid junior, and Jere Hines, another promising sophomore. The performance was an indication of what could have happened--or more hopefully, what may happen in the track season.

The Dartmouth meet was another high point. In what Dartmouth coach Ken Weinbell described as "the most exciting race ever run" in Hanover, the Crimson edged the Indians 26-29. Mike Koerner took first place, and John Quirk contributed a gutsy third place finish.

The gods did their best to make the Harvard season as disappointing as it was. Recruiting and good health helped Penn, and the Quakers will remain the team to beat in track, too. McCurdy said in the middle of this season that he should have studied medicine in college. Given what happened to the team, this is probably true. He also said that he'd like more of the runners he knows there are around Harvard to go out for the track team. This would require a good working knowledge of PR, an ability which McCurdy already has quite a bit of. As a modest suggestion as to what (for either cross country or track) his alogan might be, how about: "Competition in Cross Country Isn't Like competition under Capitalism. Because if you lose a Cross Country meet, your kid doesn't go hungry."

Or maybe that's carrying my roomate's paper a little too far.