Women Harriers Take 2nd

Paula Newnham and Anne Sullivan led Harvard's women's cross country team to a second--place finish at Saturday's Ivy League championship meet at Ithaca, N.Y.

Newnham strode away with the individual title and defending champion Sullivan placed third, but Princeton's team depth enabled it to score a 31-42 victory in the meet.

Princeton and Harvard dominated the competition. Each team placed its five scoring runners in the top 15 overall, and the first five finishers on Cornell's 5000-meter course, all in times under the old course records, all wore either Orange or Crimson.

The race marked this season's third meeting between Harvard's Newnham and Sullivan and Princeton's star, Lynn Jennings. Jennings had defeated both Crimson harriers in earlier duels at the Big Three meet and at last week's Eastern Championships. Saturday she established a fast pace early, and by the two-mile mark, held a seemingly insurmountable lead.

Diggin' In

The Cornell course, however, with its deep gully and steep hill dominating the final mile, was perfectly suited for Newnham's hard-finishing style. "I wanted to really dig in and go on the steep part of the hill and on the crest as we came out of it," Newnham said afterwards.

That's exactly what she did, catching Jennings midway up the side of the gorge and burning past her as they approached the finishing stretch. Sullivan also made up ground, but Jennings managed to hold her off to preserve second, seven full seconds behind Newnham's course record 17:39.8.

Coach Robert "Pappy" Hunt, while pleased with his stars' performances, was quick to point out the quality showings of Harvard's other runners. Therese Sellers and Karla Amble finished 11th and 12th respectively, while Johanna Forman fought her nagging achilles soreness to place 15th.

Hunt praised the larger, lesser-known group of women who compromise the "other" portion of the roster for providing much of the enthusiasm and positive attitude that characterized this year's squad.