Sam Butler, a strong intermediate hurdler, will dominate the hurdle chores, with Trip Anderson, John Maggio, and freshman Craig Butler supporting him.

Jim Springate, Bill Ocherman, Wayne Curtis and Joel Paters will fill the gaps in the 1000, but a lot of rebuilding will have to be done, McCurdy said. Fortunately, the Crimson has a 600-yd. record-holder in tri-captain Nick Leone, returning to the squad.

McCurdy will be hard pressed to replace Jim Quirk's 4:07 mile, but cross country men Jim Keefe, Jeff Brokaw, freshman Jeff Campbell and workhorse Ric Rojas will shoot for the low four-minute marker.

Rojas, the Crimson's top cross country man, will also join Karl Tsigdinos and Bill Muller in the two-mile heat.

McCurdy said he plans to experiment with inexperienced runners in today's home meet against Boston University. "Our meets with B.U. have always been casual, and anyway they don't have enough talent to make a serious challenge," he said.

But McCurdy said he expects Saturday's home match against Army to be the true test of Harvard's track and field strength.

As far as the rest of the schedule, Harvard can look for tough races against Cornell and perennial Ivy powerhouse Penn. The Crimson thinclads are also gearing up for the traditional winter track champoinship, the Heptagonals, at Ithaca on February 23.