Lights Stroke Harvard To Revere Trophy Win

The eighth annual Head of the Charles Regatta on Sunday provided a mixture of pleasant and not-so-pleasant surprises for Harvard crews: The lightweight shone the heavyweights placed well. Radcliffe was upset, and the combined Harvard effort won the Paul Revere Trophy for the overall championship with a record 432.7 point total.

The race, the largest one-day rowing regatta in the world, is traditionally a low-key affair for its entrants, but still provides interesting indications of the strength of competition for this spring. Harvard's sole first place of the day came late in the afternoon from a lightweight four, in a boat stroked by Rick Grogan and including captain Andy "Hot Rats" Narva. George Host and Todd Howard. Coxswain Paul Chessin said the race went ideally with no sag in the power.

The Crimson four edged Princeton's four strongest rowers to win the race, in which the second Harvard entry, stroked by Peter Huntsman, took fourth.

A lightweight eight stroked by Jerry Boak and including sophomore oarsmen Roger Bohn, Bob Pinkas and Rich Packeaham rowed well to take a seventh place in an event including most school's first lightweight boats.

The crew beat first-boat entries from Yale and Rutgers and were right on the tails of boats from Columbia. MIT and the Coast Guard is an event won in record time by the Potomac Boat Club entry.

Coach Harry Parker termed the heavyweight showing a "good performance in a traditionally low-key affair," as a pair stroked by Ed Woodhouse followed by his former Kent schoolmate Mike Beach placed fourth behind crows from Dartmouth, Cornell and Mercantile Rowing Club.

In addition, a Crimson four including three of last year's Henley-winning freshman crew--Tiff Wood, Blair Brooks and Greg Stone--placed third, only four seconds off the winning pace of the Potomac Boat Club in the Elite Fours.

Crimson heavyweights placed fourth and seventh in the elite eight competition that saw the silver-medalist Olympic eight come in third behind Wisconsin and Northeasters.

Parker, who coached the Olympic team, said he was not surprised by the performance of the Olympians. He pointed out that they had not rowed since Munich and their experience shows "why we practice every day at Harvard."

Mike Livingston, who rowed number two in the boat, said that "we just thought rowing in such an uncompetitive event would be a fun way to end our careers."

The first-seeded Radcliffe crew came in fourth behind Vesper, Wisconsin and MIT. Charlotte Crane, Radcliffe stroke, said that she was disappointed but also said she felt Radcliffe could have done better if they had not been seeded first and could have viewed the competition more clearly.

Kirkland House finished 22nd in the intermediate eights competitions, pacing a House effort that included a 24th by Mather, a 28th by Winthrop, and a 30th by an Eliot House crew that never officially began the race as they missed the starting gate.