Crimson Eight Takes Fifth Place In Washington Invitational Race

Never a serious contender for the lead, the Crimson Varsity crew finished fifth in a field of eight Saturday afternoon in the 2,000-meter Lake Washington regatta, most important collegiate rowing meet of the season.

Unexpected winner of the regatta was the Cornell boat, which came from behind to overtake the Washington eight, a crew rowing its first and only race of the season, and maintained its advantage to win by three-quarters of a length over M.I.T.

For the Crimson eight, whose time of 7:25.6 was almost seven seconds behind the winning Ithacans, the super-regatta of the year, witnessed by a crowd estimated at between 150,000 and 200,000 people, was a repetition of previous mediocre showings against the nation's top collegiate crews. Except for an early-season victory over Princeton and M.I.T. and the sound defeat of Yale on the Charles last month, Tom Bolles' first post-war season has been one of the least fruitful in many years.

Revenge Over Rutgers

Of the crews which finished behind Harvard's, only Rutgers had previously raced against the Bolles boat. The Scarlet oarsmen participated in the ill-fated Severn River regatta at Annapolis, in which the Harvard boat was last.

Favored Wisconsin, winner of the Severn race, was a big disappointment in Saturday's regatta, crossing the finish line in fourth place.

Washington and Rutgers were the leaders at the start of the race, with California and Wisconsin in strong contention, but Cornell, rowing closest to shore on a lake that was exceedingly choppy and made for bad times by all boats, moved up to even terms at the halfway mark, opened a half-length lead over the Huskies at 1,200 meters, and was never headed thereafter. Rutgers faded badly in the closing minutes to finish seventh, and the M.I.T. eight, a considerably improved crew after trailing the Crimson in its first race of the season, moved up quickly at the end of the event to nose out Washington for second place.

Slow Time Recorded

The time, because of the rough water, was nearly a minute and a half behind the best competitive mark in the records for the distance--a 5:51 by Yale under better racing conditions on the Schuykill River in the 1924 Olympic trials. The Elis were not represented in the Washington regatta Saturday.

After the race, several of the shells were swamped by the rough water while rowing back to the crewhouse and some of the oarsmen had to swim for shore.

In the Harvard boat were Sylvester Gardiner, Bib Chanler, Paul Knaplund, Mike Scully, Tom Perry, Lew Bohn, Lou Cox, Barrie White and Sam King.