Big One at the Big Three

Paced by decisive victories by Paul Gompers and Jenny Stricker, the Harvard cross-country teams stomped all over Yale and Princeton in the Big Three meet at New Haven yesterday.

Gompers simply ran away from the field in the men's race, taking top honors in 26:11.9 over the five-mile course. During the next 20 seconds two more Cantabs--Cliff Sheehan and Ed Steinfeld--charged in to seal the Crimson win.

After a token finisher from Yale and another from Princeton crossed the finish line, the Crimson men went on to cop the fifth, sixth, and seventh places in the persons of Peter Jelley, Andy Gerken, Bill Pate.

The final score--Harvard 19, Yale 47, and Princeton 69--was an accurate measure of just how much the Crimson dominated.

And the domination of the women harriers was almost as complete.

The hard-running Stricker, looking completely recovered from her recent ankle injury, smashed the Yale course record by seven seconds in racing to victory with a time of 17:56.4.

Kate Wiley followed on her heals, finishing the 3.1 mile route five seconds later. Freshman Kristen Perini, clinching a Crimson victory, took fourth place in 18:13.

Amazing

Kathy Good, Diana Edge, and Leslie Cooper finished 7-8-9 to give Harvard some extra padding. And almost 10 seconds behind Cooper was the first Princeton finisher.

The final point tally was Harvard 22, Yale 45, and Princeton hobbling in with 65.

The harriers gained some much-needed confidence by yesterday's results. But there's no rest for the weary; Harvard must now prepare for their final and most crucial meet of the year--next weekend's Heptagonal Championships.