Crew Faces Tech, Tigers In Compton Cup Defense

The heavyweight crew races against M.I.T. and Princeton for the Compton Cup on the Charles today. The outcome is likely to be a Crimson triumph for the fifth consecutive year.

While the Engineers are considered no more than a third placer in either the varsity or freshman contests, Princeton has been receiving especially strong notices so far this season.

The Tiger varsity has defeated Navy and Rutgers decisively, but all its crews were swept off the Schuykill River by Penn last weekend. Princeton sports handouts have been talking about "the strongest freshman crew in the history of rowing at Princeton."

Early-season predictions of Tiger strength have become rather regular phenomena in the racing world. Starting its schedule with two easy races against Rutgers and against a Navy crew which annually meets windy and rough conditions on the Severn River before competition begins, Princeton usually comes to Cambridge with an impressive record.

In 1964, the Tiger varsity left the starting line in the Compton Cup as the near-unanimous choice for U.S. Olympic representation before a five-length Harvard victory forced a revision in predictions.

Actually, this year's varsity, which finished 3rd in IRA last June, made a better showing against powerful Penn than its length and a half loss indicates. It was a tight race until the Tiger boat caught a bad crab.

M.I.T. has beaten Columbia and Syracuse but finished well back in its races with B.U. and Northeastern.

The same eight men that moved the Crimson varsity to a seven-length win over Brown and Rutgers last week will be rowing this afternoon.

The second freshman boat will be racing the Amherst JV as well as M.I.T. Amherst is an unknown.

Afternoon races begin at 3:30 (second freshmen) and continue every half hour until the varsity at 5:30.