Paint the Town Crimson

The last time the Harvard varsity heavyweight crew won the Eastern Sprints, Andy Sudduth was the stroke of the eight that went on to cop the national championship.

The second-seeded Crimson varsity (2-2) will return to Worcester's take Quinsigamond on Sunday hoping to repeat that two-year-old trumply, but there's a big obstacle in the way-the U.S. Naval Academy.

The unbeaten, top-seeded Mid-shipmen were responsible for one of Harvard's two losses, two weeks ago at Annapolis. Says Crimson Coach Harry Parker. "There's no reason to expect that they'll be any less strong than they were two weeks ago."

In that race, however, Navy downed the Crimson by only one second, Since then, the Sudduth-stroked shell-the 1984 Olympic silver medalist became Harvard's third eight man of the season the day after the Navy race has downed eight-seeded Northeastern by a whopping 10 seconds.

In short, there is reason to expect that Harvard's gotten stronger. "They're coming together well," says a pleased Parker.

The top seeded J.V. and first freshman have already come together well-so well, in fact, that both boats are undefeated. The frosh haven't raced second-seeded Yale, but the second eight is a clear favorite to stay unbeaten.

And despite Sudduth's evaluation of his boat's new lineup as a bit less smooth "but probably a little more aggressive" than its predecessor-"Andy's a pretty aggressive stroke," Parker understates the boat has looked good all season, in whatever combination.

"I hope they won't be much less smooth," says their coach, chuckling. He adds that he hasn't forgotten about third-seeded Brown-the other boat that's beaten the Crimson-and fourth-ranked Princeton-Harvard's first victim of the reason.

The Cantabs, however, won't be seeing any boats seeded higher than number-five Penn the same Quakers who were left in the dust of the Harvard-Navy competition) until Sunday's afternoon finals.

Then, anything can happen and don't be surprised if the happenings wear Crimson because they probably will.

"It looks very interesting," says Sudduth.

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More than interesting will be the lightweight varsity competition in which Harvard is seeded fourth behind Princeton, Cornell and Yale.

"It's better in this race, to be the underdogs," says stroke James Sheldon.

This could be good advice for the first freshmen whose loss to Princeton has left them seeded second behind the Tigers. The undefeated J.V. looks to stay that was against its notoriously weak ballengers.

Like their heavy counterparts, the varsity underdogs also have a new lineup. The jaggling there has landed Dave Berger up from the J.V., in the six seat.

"What we've done has felt very good so far," Sheldon says of the three-day-old combination.

Harvard's record includes a loss to both Princeton and Yale at New Haven late last month, after a flukey wrong turn sent the Crimson off the racecourse.

The three schools are the powerhouses of Eastern--and, by default, national lightweight crew, and more often than not, the HYP champ goes on to win the Sprints.

Sometimes, though, in Sheldon's words, "One of the losers of HYP gets psyched up and comes out and stuns a boat that thought they had it locked up."

Yale knocked out Princeton last year, and Harvard will look to do the same to the Tigers Sunday afternoon. In the preliminary heats, the Crimson's only challenge besides itself will be upstart Cornell.

And in the afternoon, on all fronts, you can color Lake Quinsigamond Crimson.