Coach Bill McCurdy summed it all up to manager John Currier after the men's cross country team finished second to last at the NCAA championships held yesterday in Madison, Wis.: "Look at it this way, John. We're 28th in the nation."

Temperatures dropped below zero with the wind chill factor, and light snow flurries made the course treacherously slippery, making the race a miserable affair for the 241 individual competitors.

Top Man

The harriers' top finisher was Peter Fitzsimmons at 87th. His time of 31:18.1 was well behind the blistering pace of 29:29.7 set by individual winner Alberto Salazar of the University of Oregon.

The Crimson's next best results came from Ed Sheehan, who finished 124th in a solid 31:48.4. John Murphy literally followed right in Sheehan's tracks, coming home in 31:48.5 to take the 125th position.

Murphy got a tremendous jump off the starting line, and actually led the race for the first quarter-mile before fading back into the field.

Mark Meyer ran a 31:53.4 in snatching the 130th slot, and Guy McRoskey rounded out the harriers' top five grabbing the 183rd spot in 33:27.6.

Thad McNulty and Rock Moulton finished 189th and 193rd respectively out of the 196 runners who competed in the team division.

"We were a little disappointed that we didn't do a bit better, but we had a great trip and a lot of fun," Fitzsimmons said yesterday. "The competition was much tougher than two years ago when we last qualified," he added.

"It was a fantastic season. We had great team spirit and an overwhelmingly winning record. I was thrilled to be a part of this team," Sheehan said yesterday.

Champion Salazar, who hails from Weyland, Mass., edged out runner-up Michael Musyoki of the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). UTEP took the team laurels, followed closely by Oregon and Wisconsin. Defending titleist Henry Rono of Washington State (the one team the harriers defeated) came home a dismal 192nd.

But these results notwithstanding, around Harvard cross country circles, the Herd is still the word.