Sculling Season Reaches Climax as Top Rowers Compete in Championships This Afternoon

The keen competition which has marked the training of the single scullers all through the spring will come in a head this afternoon on the Charles. The Harvard Sculling Championships will get under way at 3:00 o'clock to culminate the 1940 season and to determine the ace single rowers of the season.

Because of the broad scope of the race rules, representatives of almost every class and every aptitude will be present. The wherries will christen the afternoon's activities, but since there are only five contestants entered in this primary class, little can be said about the rowers' chances.

Novice Heats Hold

In the novice, or first-year singles class, the heats of which were run off Tuesday, comparative times are deceptive, because the headwind that slowed the first racers on the half-mile course, died out throughout the afternoon and the rowers in the fifth heat had a virtual calm on their course.

In the second heat, Dick Both '40 came in a narrow first with a time of 4:01 against a wind of near-gale proportions through a nasty chop. R. Newhall who placed second was also given a place in the finals because of the difficulty which Coach Blake Dennison had in determining the true winner.

Anderson Wins

In the third of the novice heats, Buck Anderson '42 coasted in to hit the first drop of the checkered flag in 3:50.4 for the half-mile stretch, while in the fourth George J. Edwards '42 clipped a fraction off this time by coming home in 3:49.8.

The 155-pound class found in its ranks many men who have rowed in Freshman and Varsity "fifties" this spring. In the first Beanie Gilchrist '42 astonished the dopesters by rowing his half-mile in 3:35, paring nearly fourteen seconds off the best of the heavies. Rungy King, Jr., another Sophomore, trailed him by only a few feet, certainly not a length and so earned the right to compete in the finals. In a similar situation, Gordy Livingston '42 will race in the finals with the winner of his heat, Jerry Rodmond, who finished across the line at 3:43.

Spirit Low Yesterday

Yesterday afternoon in the running of heats for the junior singles and senior singles, enthusiasm waned because of the poor weather, and so many of the contestants failed to show up up that Coach Dennison was forced to call forfeits in all cases but one. Julian Simmons '42 won in the second heat of the senior, or three-year singles, the only race run yesterday. It was impossible to get a time on this race.

Also qualified were: Phil Wilson '42, T. R. McMillen 2L, Bob Greves '40 of Cleveland, Paul Saurwein '40 and Albert Lincoln '42.

In the Junior or two-year singles, the contestants this afternoon will be David B. Aldrich '40, Christian A. Herter Jr. '41, and Beanie Gilchrist.