B.C. Harriers Steal Show at GBC's

While the Harvard men's cross-country team was attempting to establish local credibility at the Greater Boston Championships yesterday, the women's team was seeking to assert itself as the best in Beantown.

It was the teams from Boston College, however, that stole the headlines and turned in the most surprising performances of the day on Tufts' home course in Stoneham. The Eagles' women squad narrowly upset the favored Crimson, 35-37, while the B.C. men tied Boston University (ranked 19th in the nation) for first place.

The Harvard men's team finished third in a field of six, outscoring Northeastern, Tufts and Brandeis. The women's second-place finish with 35 points easily placed them ahead of B.U. (89 points), Tufts (105) and Brandeis (118).

"We expected to win," Harvard women's Captain Sarah Wilcox said. They didn't, and what made the meet all the more frustrating was the narrow two-point margin of defeat despite a top-10 finish for all five Crimson runners.

Sophomore Rachel Lewis paced Harvard with a third-place finish in 18:32 over the 3.1-mile course. Karin Swartz, Alais Griffin, Wendy Campbell and Ellen Villa ran together the entire way, finishing seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th, repsectively, 12 seconds apart.

"Given that we had five runners in the top 10," said Wilcox, "it's surprising that we lost." What Wilcox and her teammates hadn't counted on was the surprising performance of B.C., which placed runners in the second, fourth and sixth positions.

"We're disappointed, obviously," Wilcox said. "We knew it would be close, but we thought runner for runner, we were better."

Although the Harvard men also finished behind B.C., they were happier with the result.

"We wanted to beat B.C., but they have a very talented squad," Captain Rob Benjamin said. "We did all right. We had some pretty bright spots."

The brightest spot of all was the come-from-behind performance of junior Spencer Punter. At the two-mile mark, Punter attacked the rocky terrain, moving from 22nd to third before reaching the tape.

Harvard's troubles lay in the disparity between Punter and his teammates. Although the remaining Crimson runners finished in a tight pack, that pack was nearly a minute behind Punter's pace.

Benjamin finished 11th in 25:25, while Chris Woodward, John Oakes and Craig Wolff accounted for the rest of the Crimson scoring, finishing 12th, 13th and 15th, respectively.

"It was pretty good to see so many people together," Benjamin said. "We just have to get that pack about 20 seconds faster. If we can get people running closer to Spencer, then we'll do better."

Both the men's and women's teams will take a two-week hiatus before travelling to Yale to face Princeton and the Elis on October 19th.

While neither squad is looking past its upcoming league meet, both are well aware that they will have a chance to avenge yesterday's performances at the IC4A's on November 10th. The field will be similar to yesterday's, including a performance by--you guessed it--B.C. TENNIS Harvard Invitational at Palmer Dixon Tennis Center FLIGHT A

First Round

Mike Zimmerman (HARVARD) d. Anand Subramanian (Vanderbilt), 6-3, 6-1; Mike Shyjan (H) d. Chris Mueller (Furman) 6-4, 6-3; Derek Brown (H) d. David Drew (V), 6-3, 6-3; Rick Naumoff (Minnesota) d. lan Williams (H), 3-6, 6-3, 6-3; Charles Reiney (F) d. John Tolmie (H), 6-1, 6-3.

Quarterfinals

Zimmerman (H) d. Naumoff (M), 6-2, 6-3; Shyjan (H) d. Mark Agah (V), 6-4, 6-1; Brown (H) d. Kevin Werwie, 6-3, 6-4. FLIGHT B

First Round

Ravi Kumar (H) d. Todd Wincup (V), 6-3, 6-0; Brent Latanzi (H) d. Adam Kraft (M), 6-0, 6-7, 6-3; John Cardi (H) d. Steve McQuillen (F), 6-2, 5-7, 6-4; John Burke (H) d. Jim Osborne (V), 6-2, 2-6, 6-4; Albert Chang (H) d. Chris Henderson (F), 6-4, 6-3.

Quarterfinals

Kumar (H) d. Latanzi (H), 6-2, 7-6; Cardi d. Dominic Rodriguez (M), 7-6, 6-4; Burke (H) d. Anton Cruz (M), 6-4, 6-2; Paul Pridmore (F) d. Chang (H), 7-5, 6-3.