Athlete of the Week: Chris Menick '00

With swirling winds rendering senior quarterback Brad Wilford's passes ineffective, the Harvard football team had to beat Princeton on the ground.

And senior running back Chris Menick certainly did that, shouldering the offensive load as Harvard beat Princeton, 13-6 Saturday.

Menick finished the day with 165 yards on 27 carries averaging 6.1 yards per carry. What makes these stats all the more impressive is that so many of his yards came after contact.

Menick was a human wrecking ball against Princeton, defying attempts to tackle him.

He delivered on Saturday when it mattered most, carrying six times for 42 yards on the game's final drive.

He almost scored the winning touchdown himself, but was stopped on the one foot line with :07 seconds remaining--setting up Wilford's game winning touchdown.

With Wilford's passing limited to 11-of-24 completions for 101 yards, Harvard had to make plays on the ground. And Harvard Coach Tim Murphy looked to Menick to deliver.

It was Menick's punishing style that shredded the Princeton defense. Junior running back Chuck Nwokocha saw only 2 carries for 12 yards on the day, perhaps because his shifty, elusive style wasn't what the game called for.

"We weren't surprised by Menick," Princeton Coach Steve Tosches said after the game. "We knew Harvard was going to run the ball. We thought we were ready, I guess not."

By the end of the game, Harvard had abandoned all pretense of balance on offense. Of the ten plays on the final drive, seven were running plays, six of those going to Menick.

The most dominating aspect of that drive was Princeton knew that the ball was going to Menick, and there wasn't a thing that it could do about it.

For this reason, The Crimson honors Chris Menick as our Athlete of the Week.