Harvard's Adam Dixon finished second in his qualifying heat in the mile yesterday at the NCAA indoor track championships in Detroit, with a time of 4:06.6, to send him into today's seven-man final.

Dixon hung with the pack in his heat, one of three that were run, until the halfway point in the race, when he followed Brigham Young's "Perdie" Perdia who took a commanding lead. Perdie, who has run a 3:56 mile indoors, won the race.

In the finals, the man to beat is Texas-El Paso's Suleiman Nyambui, a 28-year-old junior from Tanzania and the two-time defending NCAA mile and two-mile champion.

The top six finishers in today's finals will receive All-America honors.

TODAY'S GAMES:

Cornell vs. Providence, ECAC hockey finals, Boston Garden, 8 p.m.

Women's fencing at New England's

YESTERDAY'S RESULTS: NCAA Basketball:

Virginia Commonwealth 85, LIU 69

Villanova 90, Houston 72

Boston College 93, Ball St. 90

UAB 93, W. Kentucky 68

Kansas 69, Mississippi 66

Wichita St. 95, Southern 70

Pitt 70, Idaho 69

Northeastern 55, Fresno St. 53

Thursday's Late Result:

Wyoming 78, Howard 43

Exhibition Baseball

Detroit 7, Boston 6, Jerry Remy had three hits for the losers.