Navy Ends Crimson Sprint Domination

After narrowly escaping elimination in its morning preliminary, Navy's smooth stroking heavyweight crew came back in Saturday's Eastern Sprint finals to capture the title with a three-quarters length victory over a surprisingly strong Rutgers eight.

In proving last Saturday's Adams Cup victory was no fluke, the Middies outdistanced third-place Harvard by 3.6 seconds and fourth-place Penn by 4.2 seconds. It was the first time in eight years that the Crimson varsity failed to take the championship.

The Crimson yardlings finished second by 5.5 seconds and the J. V. came in third, 5.2 seconds behind the winning Brown boat.

"I thought that we rowed an excellent race in the Adams Cup, but this one was even better," Navy coach Carl Ullrich said. "We rowed the way we worked to row."

The victorious Navy varsity eight is composed of four sophomores, and only one member of the squad had rowed before college. The championship climaxed a rather sudden rise to the top for the Middies, who before Ullrich arrived four years ago had been in a dismal drought.

Navy's win in the finals avenged an eight-tenths second loss to Butgers in the morning qualifications. Even more shocking in the preliminaries was a scare from B. U., which left the Middies a slim half a deck from elimination.

"I was really scared after that race," Ullrich said. "My seven man came in very sick and I was about that close [sic] from making a change in my boat."

At the beginning of the final race, Penn jumped out to a slim lead by continuing its starting longer than anyone else. After 400 meters, Navy pulled even with the Quakers and by 1200 meters the Midshipmen had the lead from that point.

A frantic finishing sprint by the inspired Scarlet Knights nipped the Crimson for second place. The Middies, as expected, understroked all crews. After settling to too high in the morning heat, Navy rowed the body of the final race at 34 and sprinted at a relatively low 38.

"You know I get kind of a kick out of everybody talking about the 'big, strong Navy crew,'" Ullrich mused. "Well, this may be one of the strongest crews I've had, but let me tell you, we were probably the lightest crew out there. We only average 187. Harvard and Penn are right at 200."