Crews Row in Compton Cup Races at Princeton

M.I.T. will go into this afternoon's four-boat Compton Cup crew race on Princeton's Lake Carnegic with especially grim determination and nobody around Newell Boathouse is sure that it might not pay off.

The Engineers, a fine crew, collapsed in the final stages of last week's opener and will be sure to expend their energy more carefully today.

Princeton and Rutgers are distinctly less formidable threats in the race though observers at Princeton claim their shell has enough good raw material to turn in some finished performances this season. A traditional rival such as Harvard, holder of the Compton Cup uninterruptedly since 1937, could bring this potential to the surface.

Crew coach Tom Bolles, ever the pessimist, sang his pre-race blues with greater fervor than usual Thursday. Once again he lamented the damage that foul weather has done to his practice schedule. Princeton, on the other hand, works out in relatively balmy latitudes on an artificial lake, sheltered from winds.

Practiced at Princeton

Yesterday morning Bolles, his oarsmen, and three shells ($6,000 worth) left for New Jersey. They worked over the mile and three quarters distance on Lake Carnegie yesterday afternoon and will hold a final practice session at 10 a.m. this morning. Racetime for the varsity is 4:30 p.m.

The third varsity boat left this morning for a race with Amherst.

There will be no change in the varsity boating today, if for no other reason than that Bolles didn't have enough practice time last week to try new combinations. In the J.V. shell, however, Harrison Blair will row at six oar instead of Charlie Osborne, who wrenched his shoulder in practice early last week.

Lost Last Week

Princeton, which along with the other three entries in the race rows with a "Washington-type" power stroke, lost to Penn along a 1 15/16 Henley course on the Schuykill last weekend by a length and a half. Its J.V. lost by quarter of a length. Princeton coach Dutch Schoch, a one-time tutee of Bolles' when the latter was freshman coach at Washington, made several shifts in his boatings for today's race.

Rutgers, traditionally a hapless crew, already has defeats by Penn and Washington and Lee against it.