Yawn, M. Crew Zaps MIT

Yawn. Stretch

Hit the snooze bar.

While most Harvard students were acting out these early-morning rituals, the Harvard men's lightweight crew team acted out a seasonal one: a sleepwalk through a race with MIT.

in what turned out to be its first dual meet of the season, the Crimson trounced the lightly-regarded Engineers yesterday morning on the Charles. Harvard crossed the finish line in 6:15, a full 25 seconds in front.

"We tried to use the MIT race as a trial for the Navy race on Saturday," Captain John Roberts said. "We knew from past experience that MIT was not going to be a force, so we tired to get as much out of it as we can. We just tried to race as well as possible."

Race well Harvard did. The Crimson jumped out to a great start, had open water by the 500-meter mark and cruised to the easy eight-length victory. In fact, all Harvard boats won their events handily; the Crimson's varsity, JV, first freshman and second freshman squads each won by more than five boat lengths.

"We practiced right through the MIT race," Robert said. "We practiced yesterday, raced his morning and then practiced again this afternoon. [MIT] was not something we prepared for very strenuously."

But even though the Crimson did not prepare for it, the race is still an important benchmark in the season. Princeton beat MIT by 22 seconds earlier this spring, a slightly shorter margin that Harvard's.

Although he is quick to point out that comparisons do not mean much, Roberts said that the Crimson's aim was to at least match the Tiger's time.

"We wanted to beat MIT by a similar amount," Roberts said. "If we had won by only five or ten seconds we have reason to be worried."

In the near future, the lightweights have to worry about Navy, a team that already has given Princeton a run this season.

"We'll find out a lot more about ourselves when we race Navy this weekend," Roberts said. "Navy is much faster than they have been in last years. They challenged Princeton all the way down the course."