Heavies Keep Compton Cup; Lights Lose to Navy

Superbly stroking to a five-second, one-boat-length victory over Princeton and MIT Saturday, the Harvard men's heavyweights retained the Compton Cup for the 19th straight year and left the 48-year-old record standing at Harvard 36, Princeton 8, and MIT 1.

The men's lightweights, rowing in Annapolis, were sunk by Navy, losing the Haines Cup for the first time since 1976 in a storm that even left the sailors thinking they would soon be swimmers.

Racing for the first time this season on flat water, the heavies jumped at the start and gained one seat on Princeton before the first five strokes were finished. The initial cadence was set high--44--and held for almost the first 500 meters. As the Crimson settled into a 38-strokes-per-minute pace, the second 500 meters saw the Harvard boat another seat up on Princeton.

At the 1500-meter mark, the cadence was upped a stroke every ten sweeps of the blade, and Princeton yielded three more seats. MIT was more concerned about boat lengths.

The race ended with Harvard lengthening its stroke and its lead, winning in a time of 5:50.2 for the 2000-meter course, one boat length ahead of Princeton (5:55.7). The boat was one time zone ahead of MIT, which finished in 6:14.9.

This was the second victory since the switch last week of J.B. Kelly from six seat to stroke, and Matt Arrott, last year's stroke, to six. The boat was noticeably smoother, most team members said. "Overall, the pieces seem to fit together in a better synchronization," two-seat Kurt Teske said. "The team has really gained confidence since San Diego," he added.

Racing in their worst weather to date, the Harvard lights lost a four-minute race to Navy by one length of open water. Although they were furiously bailing water out of the battered boat at the race's end, they could row back to the dock, while the freshman boat had to be lifted out of the water.

"Our boat probably would have sunk if it weren't given a pump by our coach after the race," cox Greg Soghikian said.

"The race--if you could call it that--was frustrating." Soghikian added. "After the start we were ahead a little, but at 300 meters we came out of a cove and we hit rough water. We had a rolling wake hit us from behind, a tailwind kick up the whitecaps, and a cross current from the bouncing waves from an adjacent seawall hit us--all at the same time."

"Navy wasn't better rowers, just better survivors," three-seat Jeff MacMillan said. "We were lucky if we got off four strokes consecutively that hit the water together at the catch," he added.

Rebound

The five scheduled races Saturday, all shortened due to the weather, took over two-and-one-half hours to run--twice as long as usual.

"Overall it was a bad day for Harvard--only the second freshman boat and the third varsity won in earlier races--everything that could have gone wrong did," MacMillan said. "We warmed up, and then had to wait over an hour before facing; our lighter fiberglass Schoenbrod shells were not as sturdy in the weather as the heavier, wooden Pocock shells Navy raced in. The waves were even higher than the gunwhales--what a day!"

"We're just aching for a rematch at the Sprints," MacMillan said.

The heavies take on Navy and Penn next Saturday on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia in their last race before facing Yale May 30 in the traditional fourmile race. The lights are on the Charles next Saturday to race Yale and Princeton. Princeton to beat Yale earlier in the season a race on flat water at Princeton.

In earlier heavyweight races on the Charles, the Harvard second varsity won by almost three boat lengths over Princeton's second boat, and "placed the curvature of the earth" between itself and MIT, winning by more than six boat lengths.

The third and fourth varsity boats outrowed the Cambridge Boat Club, while the first freshman boat outsprinted a tough Princeton crew to win by four seats over the Tigers and by eight boat lengths over MIT.