Harvard Heavyweights Take the Race

NEW LONDON, Conn.--The Harvard heavyweights won their fifteenth consecutive Harvard - Yale regatta, convincingly smashing the Elis by 15 seconds in a two-mile tilt yesterday on the Thames River in New London, Conn.

Yesterday's race was the 112th time the two crews have clashed in as many years. In The Race, the nation's oldest intercollegiate sporting event, Harvard now holds a solid 65-47 overall edge.

The heavies, who last week won their third consecutive Eastern Sprints title, went into the contest expecting a tight race from Yale's eight, which last week made the finals for the first time in nine years. And tight it was--for half a mile. Yale, down by two seats at that point, hit a rough patch of water, and a minor crab made opened the race up to five seats.

"After the crab, it was a slow walk-away until near the end, and then we just stomped on them" number six George Aitken said last night. "We weren't sure exactly what to expect--they'd been training hard for the last week. I was sort of disappointed in them; at the end we just went for the margin."

The Harvard J.V., losers to Yale a week ago at the Sprints, rebounded by snatching a solid six-second victory from them yesterday. "We had a good start, and then settled about a deck length down. We started to walk on up on 'em before the half mile mark, slowly but steadily. And there we went by, taking three seats," coxswain Chris Boit said last night.

Just before the mile mark the Crimson struck for open water with a strong power twenty. At a solid and strong 33 strokes per minute the J.V. slowly expanded their margin to a length and a half at the finish.

"I was pleased with the race. Except for that choppy water at the half mile mark it felt really good. After that start there was no doubt we were going to win--it was nice and smooth," said Boit.

The third varsity split up into two fours to race against Yale's single four. Once again, a good start powered the Crimson into a lead they never surrendered, and Harvard crossed the line one-two, while Yale was a distant third.

"Yale never pushed us--it was our other four," winning veteran coxswain Matt Czajkowski said after the race. "We went out hard and just stayed strong."

The freshmen, who also found themselves fifth-place finishers at the Eastern Sprints last week in Princeton, dropped a close race to a tough Yale squad.

The two crews battled bowball-to-bowball for half a mile, and at times the Crimson enjoyed a slight lead. But Yale drove by in the middle mile, and took a commanding length's lead into the last ninety strokes.

There, the frosh began to move, but it was too little too late, for Yale held off their challenge for a five-seat victory. --J.E.M.