Northeastern Demolishes Crimson Runners in GBC

Harvard's cross-country team fell victim to what Coach Bill McCurdy termed "brilliant Northeastern strategy," placing a disappointed second to the Huskies in yesterday's Greater Boston Championships held at Franklin Park.

Northeastern had defeated Harvard by four points earlier in the season, and the Huskies were slight favorites entering this seven-team race.

But the Crimson were coming off their strongest showing of the fall, a 24-31 triumph over Cornell, and a victory in the GBC seemed definitely within their reach.

Northeastern established a fast early pace, but through the first mile and a half, Harvard maintained the tempo. It was apparent at this opening stage of the race that these two teams would dominate the meet.

It was at the two-mile mark that Northeastern executed their plan. As McCurdy said yesterday, "The two teams were grouped closely at this point, when Northeastern made a violent move and broke away from the pack."

The Huskies' number one runner, Mike Buckley, jumped into a commanding lead, and Harvard's Jim Keefe, unable to keep up with the hot pace, fell back. Buckley widened his lead as the race progressed, and took first-place honors.

In the final half mile another Huskie, freshman Bob Flora, caught Keefe and finished in second place. Although he had defeated Flora in their previous encounter, Keefe settled for third in this meet.

Too Far Back

Harvard's other harriers finished close together, but were too far down in the pack to affect the outcome significantly.

Freshman Stein Rafto had one of his best showings, taking seventh place, while sophomore Jeff Campbell finished ninth. Junior Bill Okerman took 12th position, but senior Bill Muller, who has been one of the most reliable runners to date slumped to a 13th place finish.

"Rafto, Campbell, Muller, and Okerman put up good efforts," McCurdy said yesterday, "but Northeastern wouldn't stop and wait."

Following Northeastern and Harvard, which finished with 24 and 44 points, respectively, came Brandeis, Boston College, Tufts, and Boston University. MIT was scheduled to compete in the race, but according to McCurdy, "they pulled out their calculators and refused to enter the meet."

The Crimson will now idle for three days, before taking on Dartmouth at Hanover, N.H., this Friday.