Cornell Beats Crew, Breaks Course Mark

Newell Boathouse experts are shaking their heads nowadays and muttering. "What do you have to do to win?" And well they might. The Harvard varsity heavy crew rowed its best race of the season last Saturday. In fact, the best mile and three-quarter upstream race ever rowed on the Charles up until then. It broke the previous record--set by Harvard's '49 varsity--by 2.3 seconds.

But it lost the race (picture below).

Cornell, which the Crimson beat--by over a length a week ago at Princeton, broke the previous record by 2.4 seconds and crossed the finish a little less than a deck-length ahead of the Crimson. The times were 8:45.7. Boston University finished way behind in third place in 9:21.6.

Jayvees Triumph

In the opening race of the afternoon, Harvard's jayvees got the Crimson off on the right foot by beating the Big Red in the time of 9:03.5. Cornell finished in 9:05.2.

Although Harvey Love's twice-beaten varsity boat covered the course in excellent time in Wednesday's time trial, there was no thought of breaking any records before Saturday's race, and Cornell, also with two straight losses on its record, was not expected to do much better. But the Big Red is traditionally a late-season corner. And in the last week Stork San ford brought his men along remarkably well after losing to the Crimson in the Easter Sprints.

In practically perfect conditions--calm water and a very slight following breeze--Cornell led from the very beginning. Starting at a 42, the Big Red dropped to a 32 for the body of the race, and went out on the Crimson about a quarter-length. Harvard stroke Lou McCagg, who had started at a 39, dropped to a 31 and then to a low 30 1/2 for the body of the race.

Until the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge the Big Red held about a two-thirds of a length lead and although McCagg upped the best again, the Crimson could gain only a couple of seats on Cornell. McCagg raised the stroke to a 33 and then gradually all the way to a 41, which the Crimson held for the entire last quatrer mile in a terrific final sprint. But Harvard's oarsmen couldn't quite do it. They closed a little on Cornell but the Big Red matched their sprint, and won. Love expects no more boating changes before the June 20 Yale race