Men Place A Disappointing 8th

NEW YORK--If only the Harvard men's cross country team could be as aggressive as New York drivers.

That's what the men must have been thinking after yesterday's disappointing eighth-place finish at the Heptagonal Championships here at Van Cortlandt Park.

The Dartmouth streamrolled over the competition en route to its second straight Heps title, while Navy finished second.

Unfortunately, the Crimson got caught in Dartmouth's wake and, instead of finishing in the top three as it had hoped, the Crimson was forced to settle for the bottom three.

Dartmouth's Frank Powers, who breezed past Harvard only two weeks ago in a dual meet, captured the individual title by covering the five-mile course in 24:22, the sixth-fastest time in Heptagonal history.

All of Dartmouth's five scoring runners finished in the top 16, pacing the team to a comfortable eight-point victory over the Midshipmen, 46-54.

Paul Kent finished first for Harvard and ninth overall with a time of 25:21.

"I was hoping to finish in the top four," Kent said after the race. Kent had beaten two of the runners who finished ahead of him yesterday ealier in the year.

Harvard failed to do yesterday what it had failed to do all year: be aggressive.

The team started out well--everyone ran under 4:50 for the first mile--but the torrid pace took its toll.

"In the past, we got beaten early," Kent said. "Today we didn't."

Harvard's number-two runner Bill Pate finished 55 seconds behind Kent in 39th place.

"Paul ran a good race and Bill ran a very aggressive race and lost a little concentration on the back hills," Harvard Coach Ed Sheehan said. "The guys after that were weak on being aggressive."

Inexperience played its part in the Crimson's downfall. Only Kent and Pate had run the Van Cortlandt course before and four of Harvard's runners were freshmen running in their first major collegiate meet.

"I hope they're learning," Sheehan said. "They're not used to this level of competition. They're thinking instead of running."

Sheehan added that he thinks yesterday's meet will help the Crimson in the IC4As to be held in two weeks in Lehigh, Penn.