Harvard Harriers Trample Dartmouth

The Harvard cross country team, paced by record breakers Ric Rojas and Andy Campbell, dealt the Dartmouth harriers their first loss of the season yesterday, by a 16-36 margin.

Thinclad captain Rojas breezed past a cocky Dartmouth club with the clock at 22:13, eclipsing the Hanover course record held by Dartmouth captain Chris Peisch.

Two Campbells Too Many

The formerly undefeated Peisch also broke the record, finishing second in 22:47. Campbell, trailing Peisch by three seconds, gained an impressive third.

Freshman Jeff Campbell surprised the Big Green with a fourth place finish at 22:57 on the 4:8 mile Hanover Country Club course.

Dartmouth's Axtell, Carlson, Walker, and Tyler rounded out the top ten in the final finshings.

The Crimson thinclads gave coach Bill McCurdy a scare when they got off to a weak start behind a sprinting Dartmouth club. The Big Green, buoyed by their formerly undefeated status, looked invincible for the first three and a half miles.

The Dartmouth harriers hoped to shake the Harvard club, by climbing fast through the first three miles of hills.

But as the hills gave way to Hanover's flat homestretch, Rojas, Campbell, and eventual fifth and sixth place finishers Jim Keefe and Karl Tsigdines overtook three out of four Green leaders.

The Last Mile

"They went out fast hoping to discourage us," Campbell explained. "They were beating us down to the last mile, but we were always confident of winning, he said.

"Dartmouth was making a lot of noise," said Jeff Brokaw, who finished fifteenth for Harvard. "They said they were better than us because they beat Columbia, a team that beat us, but we just outran them," he said.

"McCurdy was worried but we were very much in control," he added.

The convincing victory gave Harvard a 5-3 record and a 2-3 Ivy League mark.

Coach McCurdy remained with his wife at Dartmouth last night and could not be reached for comment.