Crews Gear-Up for Sprints

Few teams in any college sport have dominated their rivals so thoroughly and for so long to be called dynasties. To reach this level, a school must make a total commitment to its sport--hiring the best coaches, building the best facilities, and recruiting the best talent.

Only rarely do universities make that commitment Alabama has a dynasty in football. UCLA in basketball, lowa in wrestling, and Harvard in crew.

In the 35 year history of the heavyweight Eastern Sprint Championships, the crown jewel of Eastern crew. Harvard has won 16 titles. Yale, second on the list, has won just six times. Harvard's lightweights, in 39 years of competition, have 20 wins.

It is an exceptional year when the Crimson oarsmen don't dominate the EARC sprints.

But in 1981 the dynasty stalled. An upstart crew from Princeton blazed over Lake Qunsigamond in Worcester to surprise the lightweights, while a brushing shell from Yale took a narrow victory from the heavies.

This weekend the Harvard crews will travel back to Worcester, seeking revenge in the 1982 Eastern Sprints, with the varsity heavyweight boat seeded first over Yale and Navy.

This ranking, following a coaches' poll early this week, comes as something of a surprise. In their only meeting this year, the San Diego Classic in early April. Yale outrowed Harvard decisively. Both crews have since gorie undefeated, and Harvard is coming off a big win over third ranked Navy in the Adams Cup two weeks ago.

Harvard's J.V. and freshmen heavies, whose results will also count in the final standings, are ranked fourth and second respectively.

The varsity lightweights have a second seed behind Yale, a projection based on the inconclusive results of the "HYP" race two weeks ago. In that match, Yale downed Harvard by just two feet after the Crimson shell had trouble with a course marker losing valuable seconds.

The J.V. lights are ranked third behind Yale and Princeton, and, in what should, prove to be a very exciting race, the freshmen eight are favored over Princeton.

The EARC Sprints end the season for the lightweights, but the heavies will continue to train for June's Sexton Cup, a head to-head, four-mile marathon with Yale in New London. Named for the manager of Harvard's 1883 crew, the Sexton Cup is the oldest college athletic event still held annually.