M. Lightweights Dunk Dartmouth, MIT

The Dartmouth and MIT lightweight crew squads got a lot of help Saturday in their efforts to upset Harvard in the Biglin Bowl race on the Charles River. But not enough.

Some tropical storm-type gusts whip up and the officials should call off the race, right? Wrong--just a delayed start because of the choppy conditions created by winds sweeping across the course from the Boston side of the Charles.

Well, at least the 20-mile-per-hour headwinds might cause the Crimson enough trouble to allow an upset, right? Wrong--just a closer margin of victory, as Harvard (2-0) pulled out to an early lead and was never challenged, finishing its home course in 6:38.99. Dartmouth finished one length behind in 6:44.11 and the Engineers limped into port with a time of 7:05.20.

Harvard has now won six consecutive Biglin Bowl races and 30 in the 35-year history of the race.

"We were lucky it was Dartmouth," Harvard Captain Eric Davis said. "We could have a mediocre performance and still win."

Through the grapevine, the Big Green and Engineers had heard gruesome horror stories from their peers at Penn and Cornell, who lost to Harvard by three boat lengths in the Matthews Cup one week ago in Philadelphia. Even bad weather couldn't save Dartmouth and MIT from the same experience.

The Crimson already led the Big Green by three-quarters of a length at the halfway point of the race and, although Dartmouth clung to within a boat-length of the lead, Harvard's biggest challenger throughout the race proved to be the choppy waters of the Charles.

"The conditions were rough and the wind really picked up a lot for the last race, which was our race," Harvard two-seat Farzad Mostashari said. "We handled it okay, but not as well as we'd like."

The lights travel to the Severn River--reknowned for its bad racing conditions--in Annapolis, Md., to face Navy next Saturday in preparation for their biggest race of the year, the H-Y-Ps the following weekend in Princeton. The Crimson is hoping to avenge its only loss this season--a second-place finish behind Yale at the San Diego Crew Classic three weeks ago.

"We've been racing well in practice," Mostashari said, "and although our race was perhaps subpar, we're well on the way to surprising some people at the H-Y-Ps."

"This week was the best training week of the year, we had five great days of practice," Davis said. "Saturday's race was an anticlimax after the past week."

Rough Waters

One result of this weekend's poor performance will be a greater emphasis on rough-water racing.

"We've been avoiding rough water this year in order to get better training," Davis said, "but after this showing, [Harvard Coach] Charlie [Butt] will take us into rougher waters."

Vindication

The visitors did get some vindication from the poor weather, as the rough conditions caused the Harvard freshman boat to fall behind after its six-seat, Ivan Rudnicki, caught a crab.

Protecting a one-quarter length lead with 500 meters to go, the Crimson faltered badly after losing Rudnicki and struggled over the finish line in 7:01.34. The Big Green finished first (6:40.74), and MIT (6:42.97) also passed the Crimson in the last quarter of the race.

In other action on the Charles River this weekend, the Harvard JV crew rowed the fastest time of the day (6:22.84), topping Dartmouth by 10 seconds and MIT by 31 seconds.

THE NOTEBOOK: The Harvard freshman heavyweights, fresh off a 1.4-second victory over Brown last week, fell to Boston University by more than one length.