'Best Indoor Track Team in the East' Starts Season With Army Meet Today

In last year's track meet with Army, Crimson performers won every individual event except the pole vault. When the two teams square off in West Point today, the Cadets may add to that wins in the 600, the 1000, and the mile, but they'll still be far from a winning score.

It's not that Army is a bad team. Rather, the Cadets are the toughest opponent the Crimson will meet this year. Army's problem, put succinctly by coach Carleton Crowell, is that Harvard looks like "the best indoor track team in the East."

Despite Harvard's credentials, the West Point squad is certain to improve on last year's 75-34 defeat. Jerry Lawrence and Phil Gray, two 14-ft. pole vaulters look like shooing for first and second places, and sophomore runner Jim Warner should take either the 1000 or the mile or possibly both. As a freshman last year he won the 1000, mile, and two mile and anchored a victorious two-mile relay team.

It's likely that Warner will stay out of the two-mile since Walt Hewlett probably cannot be beaten--certainly not by a runner on the third leg of a triple.

But a Crimson sweep of the two-mile may be nearly offset by the Cadets in the 600. There Captain Hal Jenkins and Rance Farrell, the first two finishers behind Olympian Wendell Mottley in last year's Heptagonal 600, appear likely to handle the field.

Harvard runners were unimpressive at the distance in a squad workout Saturday, in which Keith Chiappa failed to compete. Chiappa upset Farrell and Jenkins in the dual meet last year when the two Cadets seemed to be bothered by the tight corners in the 160-yard Briggs Cage oval.

Backing up Warner in the 1000 are Steve Clement and John Seamen, and with the Crimson's John Ogden still not in his best physical condition, these two should share some points with Chiappa.

The next best event for the Cadets may be the mile relay. The Cadets have three-fourths of a 3:21 quartet back from last year, and Crimson coach Bill McCurdy has still not welded four of his fine sprinters into a smooth relay team.

But the sprints and the hurdles should be all Harvard, as should every field event except the vault. The Cadets have no weight men to speak of, no high jumper able to compete with Chris Pardes, and no broad jumper in the class of Aggrey Awori.