Thinclads Come Up Short

The Harvard women's track team nearly pulled off an upset in the Heptagonals this past weekend in Princeton, N.J., while the men's team struggled to an eighth-place finish.

In the women's competition, the Crimson held on to first place after Saturday's events, but the lead didn't last. Cornell and Brown, the Pre-meet favorites dominated Sunday's action, and the Big Red claimed first place with 155 points. Despite two victories by Brown's Teri Smith, who was named the meet's outstanding female performer, the Bruins finished in second place, three points behind Cornell.

Pennsylvania had an impressive final day of competition to finish in third with 82 points, one point ahead of fourth-place Harvard.

The highlights for Harvard came in the field events, where Cathy Griffin and Nicole Carkeek each won their events. Griffin won the discus with a throw of 154'4", while Carkeek placed first in the shotput with an effort of 48'5".

The men's meet wasn't nearly as close as the women's competition.

Navy (142 points) seized control from start to finish, outdistancing its nearest competitor, Army (99) by 43 points.

The competition thinned out from there. Princeton (81) finished third behind Army.

The middle ranks turned out to be the main competition of the day. Fourth-place Yale (66), fifth-place Penn (65), sixth-place Brown (63) and seventh-place Dartmouth (56) all were close.

Harvard (24) edged out Cornell (23) for the eighth position, while lowly Columbia finished in tenth with one point.

The early results at Sunday's final looked like an all-military competition as Army and Navy each scored early victories. Army took the 4x400 meter relay while Navy's Johnny Fox won the 400 and teammate Anthony Terrell took the triple jump. Terrel, who also placed first in the long jump, was named the meet's outstanding male performer.

The afternoon then assumed a decidedly Ivy League tone as Yale's Rick Wemple set a new Heps record in the 1500 while Princeton's Kevin McGuire did the same in the pole vault.

The lone Harvard winner of the weekend was discus thrower Nick Sweeney who set a new Heps record with a throw of 189'8".