Harriers Finish Short of Big Green Squad

Running for the first time on its new home course at Franklin Park, the Harvard women's cross country team topped two of its three competitors Saturday, but fell to Dartmouth, 23-32. The Crimson downed both Brown (16-43) and Northeastern (15-46) in its second outing of the season.

The men, meanwhile, had a tougher time on the new course, falling to Ivy foes Dartmouth, 16-42, and Brown, 20-37, but defeating Northeastern (22-37) and Rice (15-50) in non-league competition.

The women's team managed to stay close to Dartmouth, despite the fact that two of their top runners--seniors Jody Dushay and Romney Resney--did not run.

"It went pretty well," said junior Suzanne Jones, who won the race in a time of 17:41. "Dartmouth always has a really good team. Of course, we wanted to beat Dartmouth, but it's still early in the season."

The Big Green captured three of the top five places to come away with the victory.

"We wanted to beat Dartmouth today to show them something before the [Heptagonal meet]," Jones said. "But in the big scheme of things, the Heps is the most important." Harvard will race in Heps on October 27 in Van Cortlandt Park.

One of the brighter spots for the Crimson was the performance of freshman Rachel Lewis, who finished fourth overall and second for Harvard with a time of 18:30. Sophomore Jenny Schank came in third for the Crimson (eight overall, 18:58), and was followed by freshman Ellen Villa (ninth overall, 19:11) and sophomore Rose Schneider (19:16).

"Everybody tried really hard," said Lewis. "I was proud to be part of such a strong effort."

The men's team had a much tougher afternoon. Robert Benjamin finished first for Harvard with a time of 26:09, but placed only seventh in the overall competition.

"Dartmouth has always been a very strong team, but they're a lot less strong this year." said Benjamin. "We planned to stick with their top runners. We went out fast but died in the middle."

Harvard was disadvantaged by the absence of Skardon Baker, Timothy Langen and Ted Ullyot, all out with injuries. Sophomore Spencer punter was the next Harvard man across the line, completing the race in 26:17 for an 11th-place finish. Todd Wells (26:30), John Oakes (26:42) and Timothy Harte (26:43) rounded out Harvard's top five.

"My concerns are with the people who didn't run," said Frank Haggerty, who coaches both the men's and women's teams. "Ted certainly would have made a difference. He's one of our top people."

The most distressing aspect of the afternoon for the men was the loss to Brown.

"Brown is a team we should beat on paper," Ullyot said. "Judging from last year's records, we should do better at the Heps."

The meet was not critical for either squad, both of whom are looking ahead to Heps and the national qualifiers.

"Championships are not decided by dual meets, Haggerty said. We like to do as well as we can, but we learned a lot today about ourselves and the competition.

"Both meets were not really indicative of what could happen," Haggerty added. "We just have to put it altogether by October 27."

The women will put their Greater Boston Championships title on the line Friday when both teams race in GBC's at Franklin Park.