Harvard-Yale Thinclads Face Oxford-Cambridge

A contingent of 26 Harvard and Yale thinclads touched down in London's airport yesterday and made their way through the London fog to stand Cambridge University. The trackers will compete tomorrow against an Oxford. Cambridge tandem at Iffley Road Track in Oxford, in the 25th running of the meet.

The insurgents from the colonies hold a slim 13-11 lead in the series, but in the last four encounters the American schools have captured the laurels handily.

Harvard holds 17 spots on the 26-man squad and two of its standouts. Vince Vanderpool-Wallace and Mel Embree, are back to defend their winning performances in the meet, which was last held at Soldiers Field in 1973.

All or Nothing

The meet is scored as an all-or-nothing affair with only first place finishes garnering any points. Vanderpool-Wallace captured both the long jump and triple jump in 1973, leading the Crimson. Eli squad to a sweep in the field events.

Weightmen Kevin McCafferty. Dan Jiggets and Captain Steve Niemi anchor down the muscle department for the squad, whereas Kent Womack and Lance McGinnis, both from Yale, will be in charge of the spear-chucking chores.

Embree, who won the high jump two years ago with a leap of 6 ft., 8 1 2 in., has improved on that height some six inches and is a certain first in the event. Blayne Heckle in the pole vault and Ahmed Kayali in the triple jumps (Vanderpool- Wallace is concerning on the long jump) are other mainstays for the New Englanders.

A Tea Party

In the last meeting of the four schools, the Crimson-Bulldog team made a tea party out of the affair, swamping the visiting Englishmen on a rain-soaked track.

Sam Butler will be one of two contestants on the H-Y squad who will compete in more than one event. Butler will hold down the hurdling duties with supporting performances from the Crimson's Gary Schmidt and Yale's Harry Davis.

Eli sprint man Clifton Mayberry, who has, clocked, a 9.9 100-yard dash, is the other dual runner on the team. The mile run will be charged to the responsibility of sophomore Jeff Campbell, whose fastest time thus far has been 4:07.3.

Embree, who has been doing more jumping around outside the high jump pits than in, was in Utah this past weekend soaring to a sixth-place finish in the NCAA's, said Monday. "I'm really looking forward to the trip. We have about four meets in two weeks and the rest of the time ourselves."

The squad which will be coached by Yale head coach Robert Giegengack and assistant Crimson mentor Ed Stowell, is comprised of the top two finishers in the Harvard-Yale dual meet. It is a very young team, with only seven seniors traveling on the 26-member crew.

After tomorrow's meet at Oxford the groups journeys to Birmingham. England for a runoff on June 15. The track and field at Edinburgh. Scotland, is the next destination and finally the team flies to Dublin, Ireland, to challenge the thinclads from the Emerald Isle.