Crimson Harriers Rout Princeton and Yale

In the greatest display of team power in the history of the Big Three meet, the Harvard cross-country team yesterday destroyed heavily favored Princeton, 23-38, and second-choice Yale, 23-36, at New Haven.

As usual, sophomore Doug Hardin led the way by notching his seventh straight victory for a perfect season and by shattering the old Yale course record by more than 20 seconds.

But it was an unprecedented team effort that won the meet. Seven Crimson harriers placed among the first 12 finishers against a Tiger squad that had a 7-0 record before yesterday, and an Eli team with a 6-1 mark.

For Harvard, it was a record fourth win in a row in the annual contest, begun in 1948. The stunning upset ended a rocky 5-4 season for the harriers. And it was a big victory for Bill McCurdy, who was suffering his worst year as coach until the quad finally came alive and won its last four straight.

All The Way

The Crimson runners zipped out to an early lead. It was clear who would win after the first half mile. Captain Jim Baker and Hardin set the pace until Baker's ankle began to bother him and he dropped back to finish a creditable tenth.

It was supposed to be a five-man contest for first place, but Hardin just ran away. Frank Shorter, Yale's child prodigy who finished second, never was any closer than 50 yards from Hardin after the race got going.

Shorter ended up at 22:54, 28.4 seconds behind the winner. Princeton's Ritchie Giesel and Alan Andreini hit the tape simultaneously nine seconds later.

Of the next eight finishers, six were Harvardmen. Senior Jim Smith, the only Crimson runner to race the course before yesterday, came in fifth, just two seconds out of third place. Bob Stempson took sixth, 11 seconds ahead of highly-touted Steve Bittner of Yale, who had the second-fastest time over the 4.45-mile course until yesterday.

Then came sophomore Tim McLoone, who has been superb in his last four races and has contributed heavily to the Crimson's late-season spurt. He was followed by Baker, Joe Ryan, and Dick Howe.

In an equally amazing upset, the Harvard freshmen nipped a mighty Princeton squad that was supposed to be the best in Ivy League history, 27-29. The Tiger cubs also had an unblemished 7-0 mark before yesterday.

Princeton's Emin Downey won, knocking more than 16 seconds off the old course record. Another Tiger placed second. But Harvard's Roy Shaw, Ketih Colburn, and John Heyburn took the next three places.

The meet was decided when Eric Roth and Dave Tuesdale of Harvard nosed out a Princeton runner for seventh and eighth, and Dick Hovey picked up the winning displacement points by taking tenth.

Yale came out on the short end of both meets, losing to Princeton in the varsity contest, 26-30, and to both Princeton and Harvard in the freshman meet, 15-46.