Princeton Stymies Trackmen, 83-71

After sweeping the hammer and the triple jump events, the Harvard track team could muster only four more wins in the other 16 events, and the Crimson dropped its second consecutive heartbreaker--this one to Princeton, 83-71, Saturday in Lawrenceville, N.J.

Tom Lenz (57.92 meters), Ed Ajootian, and Tom McDevitt started off on the right track, sweeping the hammer throw; and Hasan Kayali (47 ft. 9 in.), Sola Mahoney and Bruce Brooks added a second Crimson-only finish in the triple jump. But the field-event dominance died fast with a pair of upsets.

First came the disappointing afternoon of Geoff Stiles, who jumped just 15 feet to finish second behind Princeton's Dan Williges, who won with a 15-ft., 8-in. vault.

Then there was co-captain Dan Sullivan, suffering from inconsistency of late, clearing only 6 ft. 6 in. in the high jump, which left him second behind Tiger Rainer Malzbender.

However, four big victories gave the Crimson hopes a boost. Half-mile specialist John Chafee won the 880-yd. run with a 1:53.6 clocking, while Reed Eichner smashed the Harvard-Princeton meet record in the three-mile run, with a 13:57.6 time.

In the field events, Joe Pellegrini notched another discus win with a toss of 50.47 meters, and Chris Queen took the shot put with a 16.06-meter heave.

Put aside all those results though, and it becomes evident that the Princeton win all boiled down to Dave Kumi and the dominance of the Tiger sprinters.

Kumi led a Princeton sweep of the 100-yd. dash, and fell in behind Tiger Kevin Carty (22.3) to take a one-two in the 220-yd. dash, edging Harvard's John Jakenfelds by 0.1 seconds.

Crimson co-captain Paul Organ took second in both the intermediate and high hurdles, but it was sprinting woes that finally shot down any chance for a Crimson victory run, as the Tigers took both the 440-yd. and mile relays.

But even in defeat, there was some encouragement in the mile relay; freshman Matt Gaston turned in a 49.2 split in the third-leg of the race. Harvard could have used a few more of those Saturday.