Ten's Cross Country

Illness turned the Harvard men's cross country tri-meet with Northwestern and Rice Saturday into what the Crimson's Kent called, "more of a training session for us."

One of the nation's top runners, Harvard's Paul Gompers, turned in a course record 24:30 for the Crimson over recently redesigned 5-mile course at Franklin Park.

A strong Northwestern team, lead by Mau and Tim Phillips, took the contest with a score of 30.

The Rice squad turned in a 38, and Harvard brought up the rear with a 58.

Calling Harvard's performance good in light of the team's "initial [health] problems," Gompers said the Crimson score is "no indication of what we can do."

Andy Gerken, who ran second for the Crimson last year, was relegated to the sidelines with what Kent called a back injury. Kent said he expects that Gerken will run in New York against Columbia and Penn next Saturday.

Last year's third man, Peter Jelley, also did not run. Gompers said Jelley had the flu.

Kent's ninth-place finish follows up his strong third-place showing against Northeastern on September 15.

Clifford Sheehan III and David Reese scored next for the Crimson. They finished 13th and 14th respectively.

Rounding out Harvard's scoring was Michael-Pate, who finished 16th.