Tracksters Set High Hopes for the Heps

A hopeful team of tricksters will travel down memory lane today in Princeton. N.J.

A year ago a different team of athletes--yet one wearing the same Harvard men's and women's track and field uniforms as this year's squad--performed much better than anyone had deemed them capable of, or even dreamed about at the Heptagonals.

Few doubt that the Crimson's success at last year's Heptagonals--which each year brings together all eight Ivy schools. Army and Navy--will be thought to equal. The men's squad ran away with first last year, and the women captured second place, finishing just two points behind Princeton.

"We are hoping the same thing will happen this year." Coach Frank Haggerty says "Sometimes the results of the Helps bear no relation to the results of the meets of the regular season," he adds, explaining that last year, Harvard dropped an early season meet only to pay back the Cadets at the more important Heps.

About Harvard's chances this year, Haggerty says. "In a meet with 10 teams, you need top-line people. Overall, our chances are dependent on some of our people to do doubles. I go into the meet worried, because we go into it relying on so few people to score so many points."

"It is going to be a pretty wide-open meet." Haggerty adds, predicting that Navy, Army, Dartmouth, Princeton, and Cornell will be the Crimson's toughest opponents in the men's meet, whereas Army, Yale, and Cornell most likely will light it out in the women's meet. "And us of course," Haggerty is quick to mention. "We are going to do just what we're here to do--defend the championship."

Attempting to bolster Harvard's scoring in at least two events are Brad Bunney, who will run both 1500 and 800 meters, and Steven Ezeji-Okoye, who will compete in the 800 meters and the 55-meter hurdle race, an unprecedented combination.

The women doubles will be Grace de-Fries, running 1500 and 800 meters; Kathryn Busy, sprinting 200 and 400 meters: Alice Neuhauser, who in pursuit of a pentathlon victory will double in the 55-meter dash and the 200-meter run, and Kate Wiley, who will run the vast total of 8000 meters, with runs in both the 5000-and 3000-meter events.

The problem with doubling, Haggerty says, is that the tight time schedule at the Heps will work against those who compete in more than one event. "Having trials and finals back to back means that at times there will only be about half an hour between some races." Those who double, then, won't get much time to recover between their runs.

Women's Co-Captain Kathryn Busby says about her squad's chances "If everybody performs to their potential, we'll win it "How ever, she is less sanguine about running both 200 and 400 meters.

"I am terrified The more I think about it, the more I'm terrified I have these visions of my legs turning into jello in the middle of the second race.

"It's half emotional and half physical We'll have to win it without guts There is that feeling that we're great, but we have to show it," Busby adds.