Harriers Claim First Victory, Fitzsimmons, Okerman Shine

Last Saturday afternoon, Brewmaster McCurdy had an intuitive notion. His Harriers, sporting a less-than-impressive 0-5 record, were facing the Brown speed-sters in a few hours. Young, inexperienced, greener than the grass at Franklin Park, his boys were not heavy favorites to win the race. Still, McCurdy, "sensed trouble brewing for the Bruins." By the end of the after noon, the notion not to be denied, Harvard had come away with its first victory of the season, 19-42.

Paced by freshman phenomemon Peter Fitzsimmons, Harvard runners dominated the five-mile race, taking seven of the first nine places.

Fitzsimmons, winning his first varsity meet ever, finished with a strong 24:30, followed closely by Captain Bill Okerman (24:45) and junior Jeff Campbell (24:58).

Fourth and fifth places went to Brown runners Lehan and Leavelle, with Harvard freshmen Jamie Kiggen and Peter Levine coming back to claim sixth and seventh places respectively. Rounding out the long line of Crimson finishers were Will Brownsberger (eighth) und Brian Finn (ninth).

All the Way

The race was solidly Harvard all the way. Following the first mile, Harvard runners (one, two, three) broke out into a lead they easily kept until the finish. "Brown really had no depth beyond their first two runners," McCurdy commented. "They allowed us to deminate the pace--something we had been unable to do in previous meets--and that suited us just fine. Our guys were at ease and felt more confident."

McCurdy seemed particularly pleased with the performance of his freshmen. Three out of Harvard's top five finishers were first-year runners. "We are very young, but we're staring to mature and learn from the experience of real, hard competitive running," McCurdy said. "I expect a stronger race each time we run."

The Harriers' next meet is this Friday against Cornell at Ithaca. McCurdy said he expects Cornell to show greater depth, quality, and overall team strength than Brown did, but he is optimistic. "They must be better than Brown, but you can expect us to run a stronger race than we ran Saturday."