Men's Lights Capture Sprints Title; Heavies Fifth

Harvard lightweight crew captured its record 22nd EARC (Eastern) Sprints title Sunday on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass. Fourth-seeded Harvard heavyweight crew could muster only a fifth-place finish.

The third-seeded Crimson lightweights crossed the finish line in 6:21.61, more than a length in front of second-place Yale (6:25.38) and third-place Princeton(6:26.91). Dartmouth (6:32.02), Cornell (6:33.36) and Georgetown (6:36.46) rounded out the six-boat race. Princeton and Yale beat the Crimson in a dual-meet on April 29.

The heavies completed the 2000-meter course in 6:27.11, more than four lengths behind first-place finisher Princeton (6:14.79). Northeastern (6:18.53), Brown (6:24.11) and Penn (6:26.54) also finished in front of Harvard. Navy--a crew that vanquished the Crimson in a dual-meet last month--finished sixth in 6:30.10.

The lightweights finished second in the Jope Cup with 31 points, while the heavyweights tied with North-eastern for fourth with 26 points. Princeton took both Cups, which are presented to the school whose light-and heavyweight crews perform the best in the freshmen, junior varsity and varsity races.

"We felt that we had been getting faster for the last couple of weeks but we hadn't been able to test it against other schools," lightweight captain Chris Schulte said. "The race was really our first chance to go for it."

"We felt that it was one of the best races we put together all season," heavyweight captain Elijah White said. "We had a really good start and a very strong body. We did not have a particularly strong finish, but it was a good package nonetheless. We just came up short."

The Harvard little boat used a strong base cadence to push through Yale and Princeton, both of which gained a small advantage over the Crimson off the start. Harvard passed the Elis, then traded seats with Princeton for 200 meters.

But then, Harvard turned the tides decisively in its favor. At the 700-meter mark, the Crimson made a strong push and established a threeseat lead.

At the 1000-meter mark, the Crimson had a six-seat lead. At the 1300-meter mark, Harvard had open water. One final push with 400 meters to go gave the Crimson the length-and-a-half final margin.

"When we had open water, that was the first time that we really started to believe that we could win it," coxswain Schulte said. "We were actually pretty surprised in the middle when we started to move away... We moved consistently in the body of the race."

The Harvard big boat faltered in comparison. After 30 strokes, Harvard was entrenched in the cellar; it was not until the 800-meter mark that Harvard would pull even with Navy and not until the 1200-meter mark that Harvard would break the Midshipmen.

"We were in the lane right next to Navy and we focused on them the whole race," seven-man White said.

Both Harvard boats have one more race left this season. The lightweights have National Championships at Cooper River in Camden, N.J. June 3, while the heavyweights face arch-rival Yale in New London, Conn. June 10.

Because of a scheduling conflict, neither Harvard nor Yale will go to the 1995 Cincinnati Regatta, widely recognized as the heavyweight national championship.

"We're expecting Yale and Princeton to be tough [at Nationals]," Schulte said. "We've been in close competition all year and now they will be looking for an upset. I am sure that they will be pretty angry and fired up for the next couple of weeks."

"All our attention is now directed towards [Yale]," White said. "They did not make a particularly strong show at Sprints, but we're not counting them out."

Both Schulte and White stress that more speed will be necessary if the crews' final race will be a successful one.

"Our coach always says, 'You're either getting better or you're getting worse,'" Schulte said. "We know we're going to have to get faster if we're going to beat [Yale and Princeton] again."

"We're going to train as hard as we can in the next three weeks and get ready," White said.