Cornell Earns Tie With Harriers Despite Strong Race by Spengler

Harvard's Tom Spengler outran Cornell's Jon Anderson in a great cross country duel Saturday at Franklin Park, but some of the Big Red's less outstanding harriers were better than expected, and Cornell earned a 28-28 tie.

It was only the second tie in Harvard history. The previous one was also in a Cornell meet.

After warming up in a brief snow flurry, the Crimson started unusually fast, with about seven men opening up a gap of five yards on the Cornell team. But the lead was short-lived and may have done Harvard more harm than it did the Big Red.

Two Parts

Before long, the race had broken into two parts: a group of four in front, and then a spread-out group of eight others. The Crimson was well-represented in the second bunch, but Spengler was the only Harvard runner up front.

Two-Man Race

Towards the middle of the race, Spengler and Anderson, who was third last summer in the NCAA six-mile, had moved away. No one was making up ground on the third and fourth men, and Cornell's fourth runner, Dave Oertel, was moving up in the middle group.

Oertel's strength was somewhat of a surprise to Harvard. It was thought that most of the Crimson harriers would be able to handle him. And even the number five man. Tim Cahill, was running a bit better than expected.

So at the three-mile point, these two had moved well enough to put their team ahead, and it appeared that the dying Harvard squad would be upset.

Recovery

But just before the four-mile point, the Crimson recovered, Bob Seals and John Quirk passed Oertel, and Jeff Brokaw and George Barker overtook Cahill. Meanwhile, Spengler was shaking Anderson.

"On the way in, I thought we'd won by a point," Barker said. He'd figured he had only to pass Cahill for the victory. Crimson coach Bill MoCurdy had also calculated a one-point win and was surprised to hear the score.

The race was only one of several outstanding performances by Spengler this season. The victory was his fourth straight, and he set a course record for the second consecutive time. His time of 26:07 was 38 seconds under the mark set last year by Roy Shaw. Anderson finished 16 seconds after Spengler.