Harriers Host Capable Cornell Squad

The Crimson harriers, hungry for their second victory of the season, will tangle with an experienced Cornell squad at 11:15 this morning at Franklin Park.

The cross-country squad has sputtered to a dismal start, sporting only one victory in its first four outings. The victory came against a feeble Brown team last week.

Coach Bill McCurdy says he is not discouraged. "We don't like to lose, nor are we used to it. Our morale is exceedingly high and our aggressiveness unusual. We haven't run scared at all," he said yesterday.

Harvard's courageous running will be severely tested by the Big Red. Cornell has a 2-1 record with triumphs over Colgate and Army sandwiching its only loss to a powerful Syracuse unit.

The Big Red are led by captain Ray DeMarco, who has set one course record this year and narrowly missed another. He won this meet last year by turning back Harvard captain Ric Rojas, who graduated in June.

Trailing DeMarco is a solid cast of runners. Junior Craig Holm is the strongest of the group, and he will be an elusive target for the Crimson pack.

The Crimson is finally regrouping after a series of injuries and illnesses. Bill Okerman will return to the lineup for the first time since his encouraging performance against Northeastern three weeks ago. Only junior Dirk Skinner remains on the disabled list.

Spirited Race

Captain Jim Keefe will spearhead the harriers and battle DeMarco for the top position. It promises to be a spirited race because the two runners are easily the class of the field and both have been running well recently.

Behind Keefe are Bill Muller and Stein Rafto. They have been improving, but each must run an outstanding race to break into the Cornell top three.

McCurdy said, "We hope to match their top three and then hope that someone from the group of Brian Dunn, Tom Phillips, Dave Nemazee, Jeff Campbell and Okerman will get into the scoring."

The Crimson needs an exceptional team effort to knock off the fleet Big Red. McCurdy thinks it is possible. "Our runners are very bullish," he said. "And besides we don't want Cornell to snap our winning streak."