Lightweights Garner Top Spots; Heavies Falter, Finish Second

The Harvard and Radcliffe lightweight crew teams stroked to victories this past weekend while the Radcliffe heavies outdistanced Cornell but faltered to Princeton in a whitecap-ridden course in their tri-meet Saturday.

The entire four-boat Harvard lightweight squad outrowed its Coast Guard counterparts by margins ranging from four seats to six boat lengths. The entire Radcliffe lightweight squad of two boats also won its races over Rutgers, finishing in times of 5:27 for Varsity and 6:10 for JV.

The Harvard Varsity lights started behind Coast Guard, even though stroking a 40 pace. At the 200 meter mark they settled into a 35 stroke per minute pace, and were five seats up by the 500 mark. "After the 500 mark we took a power ten and went a length up on the Mass. Ave. bridge. At the three-quarter mark we took a Harvard 20 and opened it up to a three-quarter of a length lead of open water. We felt strong and knew we had them so we settled into a 35 pace for the final 500 meters." Greg Soghikian said.

Sean Fedak. Coast Guard's freshman lightweight coach. said his team had improved, but apparently not enough. "We came close, but not close enough. We had the opportunities but we didn't capitalize on them." Fedak called the Harvard light team "a gutsy crew and a strong one."

Walking past their shell--nicknamed "no prisoners"--a member of the Harvard team said the race was better than last year, when they rowed without their jerseys and the cold spray made a stinging impression on both backs and minds.

The Radcliffe lights found both strength and will in their two races in the whitecaps on Saturday. In the varsity light race, the black and white got off to a quick start at 38 strokes per minute. About 200 meters into the windy and rainswept race, the stroke was set at 35 and they were up by six seats at the half mark.

"At the 500 meter mark we caught distance and never relinquished the lead." cox Rosemarie A. Sabatino said with a wet grin as the emerged from the Charles.

The J.V. race wasn't decided until late in the course. The J.V. trailed Rutgers by four seats at the half-way mark, pulled a power ten and by the three-quarter mark the boats were dead even.

With about 200 meters to go in the race they hung onto a 33 stroke pace while Rutgers--which started with a 35 pace--faltered to a 32, and finally a 30 pace. About 100 meters before the finish the lights propelled themselves into a four-seat lead which they carried over the finish line.

While the Rutgers team spat into the Charles in the rain, and her team splashed each other, lightweight coach Lisa Hansen said. "It was a good race. I like those kinds of races winning from behind."

As if the waves and whitecaps and the now diagonal race course weren't enough, the Radcliffe heavies had a false start which wasted their energy.

"After the first 20 strokes we were four seats behind Princeton." cox Meg Ziegler said. "All the cadences were low. We tryed to row at 35 strokes per minute at the 500 mark and 33 strokes after that. However, Princeton was higher." she added.

The Princeton team beat the heavies by two boat lengths despite the whitecaps. "They're the fastest crew we've seen to date, and we were just concentrating on not catching crabs." Ziegler said. "We'll see them at the sprints."