Shaw, Alvord Stand Out Harriers Pass Up Jamaica For Southern Competition

Delving into competition for the first time on a spring tour, the Harvard track team returned to Cambridge with a multitude of outstanding performances, spearheaded by Royce Shaw's 4:02.8 mile and Bruce Alvord's surprisingly low times in the 100 and 220.

Coach Bill McCurdy decided this season to pass up the annual training session in Jamaica, and instead journey to New Orleans for the Louisiana State Invitational and a dual meet with LSU.

Shaw's mile time was his fastest ever outdoors-and the fastest collegiate mile ever run in Louisiana-but McCurdy said, "That didn't really surprise me. The guy is so capable and had such a good training session at the tag end of the winter season that his time was not totally unexpected."

Pleasant Surprise

What did surprise McCurdy was Alvord's 9.7 in the 100 and 21.7 in the 220. The sprints have been the Crimson's Achilles heel in recent years, and Alvord's emergence is a welcome development.

"Those southern teams are noted for their short-distance men." McCurdy said, "and Alvord went out and did a great job."

Besides Shaw, three other Harvard milers came in under 4:12 during the swing through the South, John Enscoe churned out a 4:06.8 while Tom Spengler ran the distance in 1:07.5 and Bob Seals just made it under 4:11.0.

Four-Mile Threat

"With Colburn in there, we would have a formidable four-mile relay team." field events coach Ed Stowell said yesterday.

Colburn. the Harvard captain, did not do as well as expected because of a cold and upset stomach, but he did compete. However, McCurdy did not know that he was sick until after the meet.

"He didn't tell me he was feeling badly or I wouldn't have let him run." McCurdy said, "But you know what he can do." Colburn is the NCAA indoor champion in the 1000.

The Crimson's other NCAA. ???list, Ed Nosal, showed no signs of feeling anything less than perfect as he threw the hammer 175 feet the discus 151 feet, and won the shot against LSU with a toss of 49 feet.

Richie Szaro and Frank Champi got their earliest starts ever in the javelin, and responded with heaves of 230 and 249 feet. "The good thing about competing rather than just practicing during the spring is that the guys are able to get used to throwing in competition," Stowell said.

In the long jump, Noel Hare maintained his 24-foot standard from the NCAA indoor meet, and Bob Galliers had his best jump since last spring at 23 feet 4 1/2 inches. Hare went 46 1/4 feet in the triple jump and with Galliers at 45 feet, the Crimson appears to have the strongest 1-2 punch in the Ivies.

Dave Pottetti won the three-mile in the dual meet against LSU, and was second in the invitational. His best time was 43:44.

Another surprise came when Walter Johnson, running his first 440 intermediate hurdles, produced a 53.8 clocking.

ROYCE SHAW'S 4:02.8 mile was his fastest collegiate mile ever run in Louisiana. Shaw and his Harvard teammates passed up Jamaica this year to compete in the South.