Harriers Shine in Rain-Soaked Seattle

There were no surprises this time. Seven members of the women's cross country team spent the weekend in Seattle, Washington competing in the nationals, and everything ran true to form.

The city of Seattle did the predictable, wrapping the three-day meet in endless fog and drizzle. The Crimson's foremost triumverate of Darlene Beckford, Kristen Linsley, and Ellen Gallagher finished one, two, three for Harvard, all landing in the top hundred amongst a fiercely competitive field. And coming into the meet ranked 20th in the nation as a team, the Harriers obliged by finishing 20th overall.

Predictable, perhaps, but for the seven who made the trip, and Coach Pappy Hunt, it was an experience they are unlikely to soon forget.

Tumbling out of the plane and into their hotel a few yards away (planted on Seattle's famous "airport strip"), the Harriers got a chance to survey the course first-hand from their scenic vantage point, watching their opponents struggle through the soaked fairways of the Tyee Golf Course as Braniff departures and arrivals whizzed overhead.

By the time the meet began on Saturday, the course was a veritable steeplechase, with more water jumps than dry land.

As the pack of 225 runners broke from the starting line, North Carolina and the University of Arizona established themselves at the forefront and never let up. The Tar Heels swept the meet with first, second, and fifth place finishers for a devastating 76 points, and Univ. Arizona and Univ. Virginia came in second and third.

The course itself, a long, narrow dirt road with brief spans of open ground, effectively locked runners into a fixed order from the very outset and made passing difficult. The more experienced runners were quick to make an advantage of the route's constraints and grabbed the front spots from the beginning, blocking out their competition for the remainder of the race.

Yet out of a field of 56 competing teams, the Harriers' 20th place finish was respectable, indeed, and when one considers that everyone of the top 25 teams except for Harvard was a large state school, the harriers' national debut was no less than phenomenal.

Coach Hunt couldn't refrain from gloating. "We met the cream and we weren't intimidated. I'm just so pleased."

Individually, the seven runners had varying results. Beckford, after running in the top ten for nearly two miles, succumbed to the blistering pace and faded back to a 35th place finish, disappointingly failing to qualify as an All-American.

Linsley was the next Harrier in at 53rd, a respectable performance but not her best. Next were Gallagher, little Wiley McCarthy, and freshman Anita Diaz, in 63rd, 124th, and 144th respectively. Each rose to the challenge of national competition and ran her finest race of the season. For McCarthy, who's spent most of the fall battling injuries, it was a gratifying way to end the season. For Diaz, whose mother made the trip out from Chicago, it earned her a proud parent and a dinner for the team on the dockside of beautiful Puget Sound.

For captain Becky Rogers, who was determined to finish in the top 200, it meant a 199th place finish.

And for Poppy Hunt, who will only lose one member of his band at graduation, it means next year could be just as good for harriers, if not better. "The future looks so rosy," he says, "I've decided to lead a pure life from now on, go to church every Sunday...."