The Harriers

The men's and women's cross-country teams travelled to the wilds of the Bronx for the Fordham Invitational on Saturday and--beating modern conventional urban wisdom--survived.

Against a 15-team field which included league champion Cornell, the women finished a strong second. The men finished fourth (out of 20) against predominantly New York-area colleges.

Sophomore Brian Walsh finished 10th overall for the men, while co-captain Alais Griffin topped the board for the women.

"We did very well," Coach Frank Haggerty said yesterday. "I'm pleased, because I thought we might be leg-weary after the pre-season."

Cornell took first place on the women's side with 15 points to Harvard's 78. Navy was the top men's finisher with 44 points, followed by Cornell (59), Edinboro (77) and Harvard (111).

The actual importance of the results was negligible, according to Haggerty. The cross-country teams' season revolves around the Heptagonal championships in late October, and all the meets until then are useful only as an measuring stick for the team.

Next weekend, the cross country teams travel across the Charles River for the Boston College Invitational at Franklin Field, where they will race BC, second-ranked Providence, South Florida and Kansas, among other schools.

It's a tougher field, but Haggerty isn't worried.

"We have high expectations," Haggerty said. "But we're a young team on both sides. We need a few meets under our belt, then we'll know how we're going to do."

The Polomen

The Harvard men's water polo team generated enough offense to catch the eye of Andrew "Dice" Clay, rolling through St. Francis 25-13 and Queens College 19-8 in Northern Division play Saturday.

"Anytime you are averaging over 20 goals per game, well, that's not bad," said Coach Andy Freed '90.

Yesterday's match against Boston College was postponed until Thursday night, the same night as the Crimson's matchup with arch-rival Brown. Compared to the import of that game, this weekend was Angel Food cake.

"This weekend was very much of a tuneup," Freed said. "[St. Francis and Queens] are certainly a cut below the type of competition we will need to beat to make the NCAA tournament."