Coming Attractions: Crew Races and NCAA Track

Most of your friends may have long packed their bags and left Cambridge for greener and cooler pastures, but some of Harvard's athletes are still training for spring competition. The Harvard heavyweight crew has two races remaining on its regular schedule, and three Crimson trackmen are headed for the NCAA championships in Eugene, Ore.

The varsity, J.V. and first freshman oarsmen cleared out this weekend for Red Top, their New London, Conn. training camp. The rowers will practice there for the rest of the week before flying to Annapolis Friday evening for their Saturday morning races against Navy for the Middendorf Trophy.

The heavies will round out their season June 10 in a grudge race against Yale. The Elis upset the favored Crimson by 2.9 seconds in the EARC Sprints at Worcester, May 14.

The three-mile Navy race should serve as a warmup for the Crimson eight, which has not raced since the Sprints. The Yale race, an annual four-mile affair on the Thames at New London, will be the main event on the Crimson's post-exam schedule.

The Harvard-Yale race for the Sexton Cup, first rowed in 1852, is the oldest intercollegiate athletic event, and the Crimson has pride as well as tradition to uphold. Harvard holds a 65-47 edge in the series, but Yale's upset triumph in the Sprints casts a show on the Crimson hopes.

There is one bright spot for the Harvard oarsmen, however. A short week after its amazing victory in Worcester, the Eli eight fell to perennial pushover Dartmouth in Syracuse by a hefty two lengths. And just to make it interesting, the same Syracuse crew that Harvard creams every year trashed the Big Green later that same afternoon. So you figure it out.

In any event, if you're in Connecticut June 10, catch the race. The heavies will be out for blood, and in the grueling, four-mile battle, anything can happen.

While the heavies round out their season schedule, two Crimson weightmen and one runner will compete in the NCAA championships later this month in Eugene, Ore.

Ed Sheehan, a mainstay of the Crimson distance corps, will run the 10,000-meter event. The junior thinclad finished second in that event at the IC4As in Philadelphia, May 20-21. He will face tough competition from Northeastern's John Flora, who outdistanced him by 31 seconds in the IC4As.

Two Harvard hammer throwers, senior Ed Ajootian and sophomore Tom Lenz, will accompany Sheehan to Oregon. Ajootian, who was an All-American in the indoor 35-lb. hammer as a sophomore, still holds the Harvard record with his 208-ft. 2-in. toss at the Heptagonals in 1976.

Lenz copped fourth in the Heps last year, and has improved his best distance by over ten feet this season. He contributed a second at the IC4As with a throw of 197 ft. 6 in.

Villanova and Maryland, the one-two finishers in the IC4As, should be the strongest Eastern teams at the meet.