Crimson Cruises to Easy Win

The big news is that there's no big news. Yale not only lost to Harvard on the Charles Saturday but failed to mark the occasion of the first Sexton Cup race away from New London with a respectable showing.

The Crimson beat the Elis by 71 seconds, perhaps the largest margin in the history of the event, and certainly an inauspicious beginning for Yale in the new running of the oldest intercollegiate event.

Harvard led from the beginning of the three-mile course, going off the line at a 40, settling eventually to a 32, and constantly lengthening its lead over the hapless Eli crew.

All anyone can really say about the race is that Harvard got ahead and continued to stretch its margin. Even that is an indication of how good the Crimson is.

Look at it this way: If you got ten lengths in front of a crew you were sure you could annihilate would you then keep rowing as hard as you could? Harvard did.

Knowing that the race was won, the Crimson continued to row as well as it was capable of rowing--that accounts for the minute plus margin, not Yale giving up.

The Harvard victory continued the Crimson winning trend during the day. Earlier the J.V. downed the Yale second boat by 40 seconds while the Crimson's freshman crew managed a nine-second victory over the Elis in a two-mile course.

The freshman victory was the sweetest. It was the only race whose outcome was in question and was one more indication of how much faster the frosh boat has gotten over the past few weeks.

Yale's baby crew was seeded first at the Eastern Sprints last weekend and failed to qualify for the finals by some fluke. Harvard made the finals only to lose to Cornell by 8 seconds.

The Crimson was anxious to do well against Yale Saturday. The victory solidified a trend: Harvard has gotten progressively faster during the three weeks since its loss to Navy.

The last time Yale won the Sexton Cup was 1962. Harry Parker became varsity coach in the middle of the season. The Crimson downed Yale in New London in a huge upset and has never lost since.

Parker has not only beaten Yale 12 times in a row but has put together a program of such depth that Yale has rarely had a chance in the last few years. In fact, Parker and freshman coach Ted Washburn have become apologetic about the races, wishing that Yale would do better.