And the Beat Goes On: Crimson Crews Triumph

A crowd of dozens put up with the weather and a small but noisy Northeastern band Saturday morning in order to yell every ten minutes at boats coming down the Charles.

Those who yelled favorably at Harvard crews got results; the Crimson swept every race, silenced Northeastern fans and even shut up their band.

Harvard's varsity heavyweights smashed MIT and Princeton, finishing 14.7 seconds ahead of the Engineers in 6:16, and embarrassing the Tigers with a 25-second margin.

Meanwhile, the Crimson J.V. ground down a tough Northeastern graduate boat, downing the Huskies by a length, while Harvard's third varsity and freshman crews both beat tough opponents to complete the Harvard sweep.

MIT has a reputation for being quick off the line, so the varsity was anxious to get a jump on the Engineers early. After five strokes to get the boat moving, the Crimson took 10 at a 42, settled to a 39 for 10 more and then to a 37. MIT had two seats on Harvard and Princeton was already out of it when coxswain Dave Weinberg ordered a power ten to move by the scientists.

The next thing Harvard oarsmen heard from Weinberg was, "you have six seats on them," at the 500-meter mark. Rowing continuously at 35, the Crimson kept moving away--open water at the 1000, two lengths at 500-to-go and then the sprint at a 41 to open up the four-length margin.

In the most exciting race of the day, because of the upcoming Harvard-Northeastern Sprint confrontation, the Crimson J.V. put together its best race of the season to down a veteran Huskie crew by open water in 6:25.

The J.V. wore away Northeastern's graduates a seat at a time over the 2000 meters, refusing to budge when the Huskies put on their famous finishing sprint.

Harvard stayed even off the line, rowing at a 42, pulled out to five seats at 500 after settling to a 35, and had open water at the half-way mark. Northeastern moved slightly on the Crimson in the last 200, but then the Harvard sprint finished off the Huskies, insuring the 4.3-second margin.

The third varsity edged Brown by 1.5 seconds in its race, as the freshman crew convincingly downed a supposedly tough MIT boat. Again, Princeton was never in the freshman race.

The J.V. race against Northeastern happened to be the last of the day and, after the finish, a glum mood settled over Huskie rooters in the rain-drenched crowd. As for Harvard fans, they felt as though even the Crimson J.V. boat could do well in the Sprints against anybody, and they seemed to be the only fans on shore to notice the sun finally come out.