The men's track team passed its leadership from one trio to another, naming juniors Marc Chapus, David Frimm and John Murphy the new tri-captains for the full season.

Celebrating the end of an outstanding spring campaign which included a 4-1 dual meet record and the 1980 Greater Boston Championship crown, the Crimson thinclads announced the selections during the traditional year-end banquet last Saturday night in the Harvard Faculty Club.

In addition to a statistically successful season, the squad achieved an emotional unity over the course of the year that helped it surmount numerous injuries, illnesses, archrival Northeastern, and many of its own limitations.

For some, like Murphy, a premiere miler, there was the frustration of sitting out for an entire season and having to contribute from the sidelines. For many--the more fortunate, healthy members of the track and field squad--there was a new personal best waiting at the GBCs. But for all, it was the magic of the team itself that made this season unique.

"This year's team is the best I've ever been on, senior Tom Lenz, one of the outgoing tri-captains, said earlier this year. "It's the most enthusiastic, the most fun, and the most successful." Part of that success stemmed from the tri-captains themselves--Lenz, Thad McNulty and Joe Salvo--all of whom were drawn from different areas of the team. McNulty, a distance specialist, Salvo, a sprinter, and Lenz, who throws the hammer, provided a real sense of unity in a sport which inherently stresses individualism.

Another factor in the success formula has to be this year's freshmen. Coach Bill McCurdy managed to amass a stellar contingent of Yardlings, who filled many traditionally weak areas and set a distinctively ebullient, young tone for the squad.

"The freshmen? They're incredible!" quipped Chapus, who said he is already looking forward to next year and the return of a solid nucleus. Still, Chapus added, the team will really miss the graduating seniors. "They made all the difference," he said.

Hurdler Chuck Johnson perhaps best described the sort of feeling that built a brotherhood on this year's team: "After the track banquet, after the speeches and the hoopla and the awards, serious or silly, a lot of the team just stood around not wanting to leave, sorry that it was all over."