Varsity Lights Brighten Weekend By Smashing Yale and Princeton

Partially salvaging the most disastrous weekend for Harvard crew in years, the varsity lightweights defeated Yale and Princeton Saturday on the Charles to win their 12th straight Goldthwait Cup.

The lights rowed to an impressive victory--their fourth straight this year--behind stroke Dave Harman and cox Bill Terranova.

Harvard jumped into an early lead with a fast 43 strokes per minute at the start of the race. At the 500-meter mark the Crimson led by the three-quarters of a length; by the half-way mark Harvard had stretched its lead to a length. Going into the last 500 meters, Princeton started to falter while Yale made a strong but vain attempt to catch Harvard in the sprint.

The Crimson's time over the 2000-meter course was 6:46 followed by Yale's 6:50.5, and Princeton's 6:57.5. The Bulldogs and the Tigers just were overpowered by the lightweights' strong stroke.

Crimson coach Steve Gladstone said happily, "it was a pretty good row for us. We were very strong although racing into a good head wind. Yale gave us plenty of competition."

Hopefully Better Still

Gladstone was optimistic about the future. "I think we can be better still, and hopefully we will get better for the Eastern Sprints this weekend," he said.

Harvard's lightweights should be favored to defend their title in this Saturday's Sprints at Lake Quinsigamond. With all of Harvard's other boats facing very stiff competition at the Sprints, the lightweights might be Harvard's only victory.