Thinclads Compete at Penn Relays, GBC's

In the final competition before the Heptagonal Championships (to be held May 8-10), members of the Harvard men's and women's track teams competed at Philadelphia's Penn Relays and Northeastern's Greater Boston Championships.

While the results of both events don't count toward team standings, several individual performers produced personal records.

The Relays--an annual track extravaganza featuring high school, college, Olympic, and Master competition--played host to a world-record-breaking performance last week, as a male quartet from the University of Arkansas set a new mark in the distance medley relay.

Meanwhile, the Crimson's Lois Brommer broke to a quick start in the 10,000--and kept up with the country's fastest collegiate runners for the first half of the race--before fading to an eighth-place finish. The event's first place runner established a new national record, and Brommer's effort was the third fastest in Harvard history.

Cliff Sheehan placed eighth in the hotly contested mile race. Sheehan's 4:05 clocking was six seconds off his personal best, and eight seconds behind the winning 3:57. "It's a fast track, and the crowd of 40,000 really gets excited, and the competition is good," Sheehan said. "But I didn't have a good race. I'm still out of shape--trying to recover from my thesis."

The GBC's provided a stage for long distance star Paul Kent's comeback, as the Harvard trackster placed second in the 1500 meters with a time of 3:52. Don La Vigne set a personal record--and qualified for the IC4A championships--by capturing the 400 hurdles in 53.1 seconds.

Not suprisingly, perpetual standout Erin Sugrue claimed first prize in the high jump and 100 hurdles.