Cross Country

Dartmouth's varsity cross-country harriers open on October 3 in a dual meet against Manhattan, then face a triangular meet, three other dual meets plus the Heptagonal and ICHA meets. This fall, after a few lean seasons, the Big Green fortunes are looking up.

Coach Ellie Noyes has three strong lettermen returning and six unusually gifted sophomores moving up from last year's undefeated freshman cross-country team which finished third in the IC4A freshman competition. The returning lettermen are Captain Roger Coates, Fred Schwab and Steve Merrill.

Leading the sophomore group is, of course, Dartmouth ace Tom Laris who has already broken Doug Brew's Dartmouth cross-country record and who is rated as the best distance runner ever to come to Dartmouth. Close behind Laris is Nick Jennison, who also has broken Brew's mark, while Dan Thompkins, Clark Billings, Dud Hallagan and Tom Komarek are all rated as unusually strong sophomore runners.

Combining the returning lettermen and these outstanding sophomores, Coach Noyes will find himself with one of the strongest teams in some years. Just how well the Indians will do will be determined to some extent in the first meet of the season when they encounter the Manhattan Jaspers, always one of the top distance teams in the nation. If the Indians get by Manhattan they could well go undefeated in dual meet competition this fall.