Lightweight Crew Loses to Midshipmen

A powerful Navy crew nosed out the Crimson lightweights at Annapolis Saturday to shatter the varsity's victory string at 32. Finishing first by 1.2 seconds, the Middles crushed Crimson hopes for their fourth consecutive undefeated season and threw a snag in their plans for an easy victory at the EARC sprints.

The Navy varsity jumped to an early lead of nearly a length at the start, maintained their opening sprint until the half mile mark, while the Crimson settled down at a 32 after 15 strokes.

With a half mile to go the varsity had closed the gap to a third of a length, but could not gain any more.

Batting against a very heavy headwind, the crews finished in about 7:40. Times meant very little, however, as the same Navy eight had turned in a clocking of 6:52 in beating Princeton and Columbia last weekend.

In a futile attempt to extend the winning streak, coach K. C. Chase reshuffled the boating he sent against MIT last week. Ted Wandel again went in the bow position; Jim Miller went in at two; Dudley Harde kept his spot at three; John Richard stayed at four; captain Dave Richards switched from seven to five; Jon French went from two to six, and Francis Blake from five to seven. Tony Goodman stayed at stroke, while Chris Hamilton remained in the coxswain's seat.

Though the J.V.'s lost to Navy by one and one-half lengths, they showed considerable improvement over last week's performance, possibly due to the addition of Larry Fogelberg.

In the one bright spot of the afternoon, the freshman eight swept to an impressive four length victory over the Mid-shipmen