Harriers Head to 'Biggest Meet of Year'

The men's and women's cross-country teams will compete in the biggest meet of their seasons today. They have travelled to New York City to face the seven other Ivy League schools and the U.S. Naval Academy in the Annual Heptagonal Cross Country Championships.

Both the women's and men's squads are looking forward to bettering last year's seventh and fourth place finishes, respectively. The women's team is running with momentum from its latest victory two weeks ago at the annual Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet.

The team is led by seasoned veteran and Heps in door 800-meter champion Karen Goetze. Also coming off of successful track seasons from last year are Meredith Fitzgerald, who took third in the Heps outdoor 3000 meter event, and Jenny Martin, who finished fifth in the indoor mile.

The Crimson's biggest competition in the women's field will come from three-time consecutive champion Cornell and nationally ranked Dartmouth, which is striving for its first league title. The Big Red and Green should have little difficulty securing the top two finishes, but the other seven spots appear to be open for the taking.

Van Cortland Park separates the men from the boys.

The men's draw is also dominated by Dartmouth, which has been nationally ranked for the entire season and is coming off a convincing win at the New England Championships. It would be a stunning upset if any of the eight challengers beat Dartmouth to the winner's circle in today's meet.

The Crimson men are, however, certainly in contention for second or third place. Head Coach Frank Haggerty mixes up the daily routine with a combination of long distance and interval training.

Number one harrier and team leader lan Carswell is flying high off of his win at the Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet. His resume includes a runner up showing in the Heptagonal outdoor 5000-meter run last May. Brian Walsh is the team's top returning finisher and one of the most consistent runners, taking third overall at the H-Y-P meet.

Today's meet takes place at Van Cortland Park, which is considered by many serious running fans to be the one course in the nation that separates the men from the boys. The 5,000 meter course was, in fact, once quoted in Sports Illustrated as being "the toughest and most grueling cross-country course in the nation." It is also the site of the largest cross-country meet in the country, known as the Spike Shoe, which takes place annually on October 18 and attracts running enthusiasts from all over the world.

The course begins on a half-mile flat that leads into the "cow-path," which is a 200 meter stretch that can be likened to a pit of quick sand. The unfortunate runners then face their first real challenge, known as "bitch hill" to masochistic course veterans, which is in effect a mountain side that never ends.

After crossing a highway-spanning overpass and inhaling the requisite volume of carbon monoxide gas," (after all it is New York City), the runners begin the 1.5 mile loop of the famous "back hills." These consist of a seemingly endless span of winding slopes that eventually return the runner to the bridge, around a sharp downhill and to the final 400-meter stretch.

The men's Heptagonal Championship begins at noon on a five mile extended course, and the women's race, covering 5000 meters, begins at 1 p.m.

If the Crimson runners emerge victorious today, they will have conquered a great deal more than their Ivy League competitors.