Heavies Top UCLA, Set for Sprints

In the rowing world this weekened East met West, and contract to what Jim Morrison might sing, on the waters of Ballona Creek in Marina del Rey Saturday, the Harvard varsity heavyweight showed 12,000 California fans lining the banks that, at least in crew, the East is the best.

The race itself was rather anticlimactic. The Crimson let UCLA surge into an early lead but then overtook the Bruins at the 500-meter mark and pulled away from there. At the finish line it was all Harvard, the varsity eight rowing home at a cadence of 39 strokes per minute, covering the 2000-meter course in 6:35.2.

The Bruins trailed by more than two lengths of open water.

"Harvard whomped all over us," a disappointed and surprised spectator said after the race.

Harvard avenged its only loss ever against UCLA, which came in the crews' last meeting--the 1982 San Diego Classic, where UCLA finished fourth, one spot ahead of the Crimson. In this year's classic, which Harvard did not enter, the Bruins again finished fourth, with Yale third.

The convincing win Saturday strengthens the Crimson's claim to having the best crew in the nation, an issue which will be more clearly decided Sunday at Worcester, site of the Eastern Sprints. The oarsmen's chief competitions is likely to be Yale and Princeton. The Tigers are responsible for the only blemish on the Crimson's 4-1 season record, while the oarsmen have yet to face the Elis in 1983.

The Harvard lightweight crew, meanwhile, did not compete this weekend but is slated to defend its 1982 Eastern Sprints title in Worcester Sunday.

THE NOTEBOOK. In action closer to home this weekend. Dartmouth's heavyweights overcame the competition and a wayward sailboat en route to victory Saturday on the Charles. The Big Green defeated MIT and Wisconsin, but first collided with a dinghy belonging to the Community Boat House.