High Expectations

Coming into this year's outdoor season, the Harvard men's track team had many expectations to live up to Last year, the Crimson ran impeccably. It won its first four meets, and went on to place first in the prestigious Heptagonals.

This season's results speak for themselves Harvard finished 2-2. But that doesn't mean that this was a bad season or that next season won't be better Much better.

Harvard senior Co-captain Kimbro Stephens thinks next year will be a good one for the tracksters. "This year has been an off year, but I think secretly that next season we'll win. But then again, those things usually come back to haunt you." He is dead right.

Trying to capture the 1984 outdoor season in a word. Stephens says, "I don't know. Disappointment." Then he adds, "We have a lot of talented athletes. We're just not able to pull it together as a team."

The season started April 7 with a meet against Northeastern, a team. Harvard squeezed by last year with a three-point victory. The prospects were quite different this time as the Crimson was crippled by injuries. Says senior Co-Captain Brad Bunney, "Considering the number of injuries that plagued the squad after spring break. I think we ended with a respectable record." Bunney is dead right too. Steve Ezeji-Okoye was out. That meant that Harvard's one-two punch in the hurdling events was no longer a KO. With this in mind, the Crimson's loss against the Huntington Ave Hounds came as no surprise.

Next on the schedule was a tri-meet at Dartmouth against the Big Green and Brown. But even though Harvard showed some depth with Jim Herberich winning the 110-meter hurdles in 15.36 seconds without the help from Ezeji-Okoye and Stephens, the Crimson fell short of intimidating Dartmouth, placing second ahead of the Bruins.

A face-lift was necessary. Yale was next on the agenda. A year ago, the Bulldogs had been hapless. The Crimson had downed them by 38 points. No less, 38 points. Could Harvard revive that sweet taste of victory? Nobody knew for sure, yet the tracksters hoped for the best. For sure.

And it happened Harvard won again. This time the difference was not a comfortable 38 points, but rather a narrow seven points.

But it didn't matter. The point was that they won. They had beaten the Buildings again, and the Crimson was on its way to improvement. "The Yale meet was a real team effort. Everybody was very supportive of each other," Stephens recalls.

The win was Harvard's 19th straight outdoor win over Yale. The Crimson rallied to win five events, going one-two in three of them, after having been down by 21 points with six events left.

Jay Hudson and Terry Denson secured first and second place respectively in the 100-meter sprint. A few minutes later, John Perkins and Brad Bunney raced for first and second place in the 800-meter event. The last touch was provided by Stephens and Herberich, who combined for first and second place in the 400-meter hurdles.

Harvard put the lid on the Bulldogs in the final 1600-meter relay. Tom Quinn's stellar third leg put the Crimson in a lead they never relinquished.

That may not sound like a snapshot from a disappointing season. The truth of the matter is that it wasn't a bad season, but it wasn't a particularly good one either.

As it turned out, the Yale meet was the highlight of the season. Harvard never equalled themselves. They went on the loose against Northeastern and Boston University in the Greater Boston Championships, and they placed a disappointing sixth in the Heptagonals.

It was a year characterized by a many small victories and few big victories, the Yale win being perhaps the only overall strong team performance. The smaller victories included those times Paul Gompers ran 10,000-meters under 30 minutes, and the new 1600-meter relay school record of 3:12.81 set by Herberich, who ran a 47-second leg, and his teammates at the Heps.

Stephens puts it all in perspective: "Sixth place in the Heptagonals is not indicative of our strength. I still have very high expectations for next year."

If that's this spring season in a nutshell, let's hope next year's squad learns how to live with such expectations better than this year's team. There will be no outstanding previous record to haunt them. Except, of courses for the Yale win.

*Tomorrow: Women's Track