Crimson Lights Take on Navy for Haines Cup

The Harvard lightweight crew entertains Navy today in a race for the Haines Cup in the Charles Basin. The Crimson has never lost the cup since its inception in 1964.

Harvard's biggest concern going into the contest is over-confidence, the Midshipmen simply aren't the high-caliber crew team that Harvard is.

Coach John Higginson will be trying to keep his squad charged up for the encounter. "Last year we went to Annapolis and rowed a poor race because we took them too lightly. We want to avoid that this year."

In spite of Higginson's concerns, the Crimson should have an easy time with the Midshipmen. In a race against Princeton two weeks ago, the Tigers trounced Navy by 15 seconds. In their race last week, the Middies defeated weak Coast Guard by only seven seconds.

How Much

Captain Chris Ross, the coxswain, said, "We should beat them, and it's only a matter of how much we do it by."

Ross also cautioned, however, against a team let-down. "We've had two big wins the last two weeks against MIT and Rutgers and we have the big one next week against Princeton. But we don't want to have a "dead" race this week--we want to beat them by more than Princeton did."

Higginson has made a number of changes in the varsity shell since last week. He German-rigged the boat, moving Paul McKenna to the bow slot from four, and moving Pete Huntsman from two to number three. Higginson also changed Bob Leahey to the four position, and moved John Kier to the two spot.

"The boat was rowing in circles. The starboard was outrowing the port side and making the boat go unevenly through the water, and the switches should correct that," Higginson said.

In other races, a revamped junior varsity and the first freshman meet the Navy J.V., and the third varsity boat faces the Cornell third varsity. The races go off starting at around 9:00 in the morning.