Coaches' Corner . . .
TOM DENT: There are not many good things to be said for this season's soccer results. At the beginning of the season we could have predicted at least a fair season, with perhaps a better than 50-50 record. The team was for the most part dependent upon sophomores, with at least six of the starting line-up composed of '62 men, and it was expected that we would have to pay a price for inexperience. This not only proved true, but the situation was further complicated by injuries which prevented the team from ever appearing at full strength.
Beginning against a strong team from the University of Connecticut, Dartmouth squeaked out a 3-2 win in overtime. The only other early-season victory was gained over Amherst, 4-2, again in overtime. To date no Ivy League contest has been won, and we await the coming of Cornell, with no better record than ours, for the battle of the League cellar. On Saturday, November 7, Dartmouth exploded against an M.I.T. team that boasted a 6-2-2 record, and ran up a score of 5-1 against what was believed to be a tough team to beat. Although playing most of the season under the handicap of injuries that never really healed, Captain Mitch Engle, center half, has been a tower of strength on defense. Don Betterton, a senior, at outside right has been high in the scoring column and made three goals against M.I.T.
Any real strength for next year must come from the freshman team, which hasn't shown a great deal of scoring power. The best I can say is that we will look forward to next year when, with hard work, we will do better.
ELLIE NOYES: At the end of the 1958 cross-country season, it was apparent that our undefeated freshman team would have to provide the strength for the varsity to climb out of the Ivy League cellar. Tom Laris, Nick Jennison, Dan Tompkins, Dud Hallagan, and Bill Obenshain have joined junior captain Roger Coates and senior Bob Becker in lifting us into the first division. Close losses to strong Yale and Brown teams were followed by a very satisfying win over Harvard, to whom we had bowed by a perfect score in 1958. Our freshman team also defeated Harvard, and the top group should provide us with the added depth needed to win close meets. The five best sophomores improved steadily as they mastered the longer mileage of the varsity races. Nick Jennison's contribution as the "follow-up punch" to Laris proved to be the most effective in our dual meets. Tom Laris, holding record marks for the freshman courses at Dartmouth and Franklin Park, the scene of all Boston meets, had no difficulty in establishing varsity records for the same courses. The team's performance has been very satisfactory.
The individual performance of Tom Laris in the Heptagonal Games merits special comment. On a warm, humid day, at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, seventy runners lined up to race over the championship course. At the half-mile mark, the three top-rated runners were threading their way aggressively through the pack. Laris of Dartmouth, Greene of Army, and Lowe of Brown passed the mile-mark in 4:37 and went off into the rocky trails in the next mile. Each pushed the pace through the hills and out to the flat stretches at two miles, with the rest of the field scattered behind. At three-and-a-half miles, Bob Lowe broke under the increased pace and Laris jumped Greene for a few yards. From there in, it was a race between the two un- defeated runners in the league. Greene gained his yardage back almost at once. At four miles they started up Cemetery Hill together. Laris made one last, effort and picked up a few yards to go off the top of the hill with a lead, but Greene gained it back and led into the last flat half mile to win and break the record of Army's great Dick Shea. It was reminiscent of the race of ten years ago when defending champion Stan Waterman of Dartmouth attempted to lose Dick Shea of Army on the downhill slope of Cemetery Hill. The two greatest downhill runners I have ever seen covered the slope in a wild plunge that has never been equalled, with Shea's strength at the end deciding the race. Dick Greene and Tom Laris added another page to the annals of great cross-country competition. Don Burnham, Stan Waterman, Jack Hanley and Doug Brew will have to close up and make room for Tom Laris.
