Green Edges Women Harriers

A much-improved Dartmouth women's cross-country team capitalized on the absence of several of Harvard's top runners and handed the Crimson a 25-32 loss yesterday at Franklin Park.

Bleak

After watching the visitors steadily overtake the fast-starting Harvard women, Harvard coach Pappy Hunt's mood was as bleak as the grey skies that hung over the golf'course. "With our top group, we're a hell of a team; buit without them we're just another team."

Harvard's freshman superstar Darlene Beckford added yet another first-place finish to her string of victories that seems unlikely to be threatened in regular season competition. In last Saturday's duel against Brown, Beckford reaffirmed her place among the nation's best runners by shattering the Franklin Park 5000 meter course record in 16:49.

Yesterday, she steadily pulled away from Dartmouth's Toni Cook to win by 20 seconds at 17:54 after challenging Cook in the middle of the race. Kristen Linsley captured third for the Crimson in a personal best of 18:41. The rest of the race featured a thin green line of Dartmouth's runners which was broken only by captain Karla Amble who finished in seventh place.

Already weakened by the loss of Paula Newnham, due to an ankle injury. Harvard was unable to offset the unexpected absence of number-two runner Johanna Forman who was called home suddenly a day earlier.

Though the meet's outcome would have changed with either of the missing runners, Hunt felt his team would have won anyway. "I expected them to bounce back," he said, referring to Saturday's loss to the University of New Hampshire, "but we didn't. We ran flat."

The Crimson runners moved out well behind front-runners Beckford and Cook over the uphill first mile. As the teams spread out in the critical middle mile, Linsley, Amble and her teammates Leslie Voit and Diane Jacobson held third through sixth places ahead of a string of five Dartmouth women.

As the runners hit the sidewalks in the last mile, the Dartmouth group pushed its way past Voit and Jacobson and began to work on Amble. Less than 20 seconds separated the eight runners as they headed up the final hill, and Harvard needed only to pick up one place to repeat Saturday's one-point victory over Brown. However, the strong Dartmouth squad made its move as three runners caught Amble up the hill, while two others held off closing challenges by Voit and Anita Diaz to secure the win.

With their training already set back by the past week's cold, rainy weather, the Crimson, whose record now stands at 3-2, will have to rely more on luck than hard work to bounce back for Tuesday's Greater Boston Championships.

Though the Harvard women have traditionally dominated this meet, they now face a strong challenge from an 8-1 Boston University team.