Crews Ready for Spring Season

Both the Harvard and Radcliffe crews will take to the water this fall in preparation for their respective spring seasons.

Each will participate in a number of open meets, including the Head of the Charles and the Foot of the Charles, in order to hone their skills for later in the year.

The Harvard heavy- and lightweight crews will be trying to build on a season of ups and downs when they return to the familiar Charles River.

Each crew has suffered tough losses to graduation. Although a corp of three top-notch oarsmen remain on each crew, the Crimson has graduated a total of ten oarsmen from last year's boats.

Andrew Wilson, Matt Emans and Field Ogden return in the varsity lightweight boat. Chris Schulte returns as coxswain.

Senior Oliver Rando will highlight the returning corp of oarsmen for the heavyweights. Bow Scott Henderson, one-man Nick Peterson and coxswain Todd Kristol are back for repeat appearances.

Last season's performance for both crews can only be described as disappointing. Both crews were defeated in the season's most prestigious races, the National Championships and the EARC Sprints. Brown narrowly edged the heavies at Nationals while both Princeton and Dartmouth came in front of the lights.

At Sprints, both crews were blown out. The lightweights finished fifth, nearly eighteen seconds off pace-setting Dartmouth. The heavyweights also placed third, albeit only three seconds behind the winning Brown crew.

In fact, that Brown crew won everything in sight last season. The Bears won at Sprints, Nationals and the Henley Regutta in England. Adding insult to injury, Brown blew out Harvard by more than seven seconds in a dual-meet held at Providence, R.I.

The Radcliffe crews were more successful this past spring than the Harvard men. They faired well at both the National Championships and the EAWRC Sprints.

The lightweight team proved to be particularly outstanding. Its first varsity team took home top honors at Sprints (7:29.6) and then cruised to a first-place finish at the National Championships. In the latter race, the crew's 7:06.83 time was only two minutes behind first-place Fordharn, (7:04.79).

The heavyweight team also fared decently in the last two meets of the season. At the EAWRC Sprints the first varsity boat finished fourth (6:41.9), the second varsity boat finished fourth (6:53.0), the first novice boat finished third (6:45.7) and the second novice team finished first (6:47.7).

At Nationals, the heavyweights Novice 4 boat blazed to a first-place finish in 7:06.64.