Sportswrap

RUGBY

The Harvard rugby club found the old scoring punch and roared past the Columbia Lions, 28-4, Saturday in New York.

The victory broke a three-game Crimson losing streak and upped the squad's record to 3-5 on the season.

"We're talking the middle of October since we last won," Co-Captain Jon Israel said, referring to the ruggers 31-6, earlier-season rout of Babson.

Harvard stormed to a 14-0 halftime lead. Chris North broke the scoreless play 13 minutes into the contest when he bowled over several defenders for a try. Nathan Koenig converted the kick to put the Crimson ahead 6-0.

Twenty minutes later, Chris Arbery scored for the Crimson. After a long return of a Lion kick, the two teams fought for the ball in a ruck. From the ruck, Arbery caught a pass and outran the Lions for a try.

"It was a good supporting flurry on the kick return," Harvard Coach Martyn Kingston said. "It indicated the type of good supporting play we had."

With a minute to play in the first half, Isreal dashed 10 yards for a try after picking up a loose ball in a scramble.

The Crimson continued to dominate play in the second half. Fullback Koenig came into the line, grabbed the ball, and ran it in for a score. He also converted the kick to increase the Crimson lead to 20-0.

Jon Leydon and LaRaja closed out Harvard's scoring when Leydon scored on a blocked kick and LaRaja on a short run.

Columbia tallied with 10 seconds remaining to ruin the ruggers' shutout bid--marking the third time this season an opponent has foiled a Crimson shutout bid with a late-game score.

The B-side also prevailed, 21-0, over Columbia, as freshmen Chris Liles scored 17 points and Dave Beardsley added a try.

While the men blew away the Lions, Radcliffe did not fare as well, losing to arch-rival Dartmouth, 22-0.

Dartmouth squeaked past the Black and White twice last season, including an 8-4 sudden-death overtime thriller in the Ivy League Championship.

Saturday's contest was never in doubt, as Radcliffe (now 3-4) was held scoreless.

"We didn't play together as a team," Club President Heather Flewelling said.

Yale visits Soldiers Field this weekend to take on both the Harvard and Radcliffe teams. The Elis face the Black and White on Friday and the Crimson on Saturday.

CROSS-COUNTRY

Competing in only his fourth intercollegiate competition this season, senior Paul Gompers raced to sixth place in the IC4A Regional Cross Country Championships held at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., Saturday.

Gompers, the world junior marathon record holder, crossed the finish line in 30:09.40 to earn a spot in the national championships, which will be held November 24th in Tuscon, Ariz. The top three teams and top two individuals from the IC4As qualified for the national meet.

Boston University's Dean Crowe ran a 29:55.08 over the 10,000-meter course to claim first place honors, but Dartmouth (85 points) edged out the Terriers for the team title by two points. Harvard finished 19th in the 49-team field, compiling 648 points.

The next Harvard runner to finish after Gompers was senior Mike Curtis, who clocked in at 31:40.88 for 67th place.

The Harvard women's varsity finished 20th out of the 36 teams competing in the IC4A meet.

The first Crimson runner in the 5000-meter race was sophomore Toby Warden, who placed 27th with a time of 17:34.01. Warden, running in her first varsity regional meet, felt the competition was "a good experience."

"It was the biggest race I've run in so far, and I think we all learned from racing under those conditions."

There was only one senior competing for the Crimson at Lehigh, Captain Allison Keller, whose time of 18:43.61 made her the fourth finisher for Harvard and 121st overall. The race was won by Villanova's Vicki Huber in 16:38.36.

Other runners for the Crimson were Katie Toner (66th, 18:08.73), Tina Lount (101st, 18:31.41), Lise Vansen (145th, 19:00.05), Eva Klohnen (152nd, 19:06.45) and Michelle Sang (168th, 19:19.70).