Varsity Leads Crew Sweep With Record 8:48.4 Effort

Harvard's varsity crow passed its Generals handily Saturday on the Charles by defeating four top Eastern crews and setting a new course record of 8:48.4 in the precess. This leaves the Bolles-tutored outfit with an excellent chance of coming through the Divisionals at Syracuse next week unscarred, and going on to finish out the season with a perfect record.

Once again, the varsity boat demonstrated such clear superiority over its rivals that it was never pressed. Bill Curwen negotiated the course at his usual unhurried 31 beat, despite the fact that MIT was making a desperate bid to stay in the running over the early part of the race.

MIT Starts Fast

The Engineers did manage to take an early lead after the opening sprint, a lead which they held over the first quarter mile before succumbing to the sheer power of the Crimson's stroke. By the time the shells reached Harvard Bridge, the Crimson had an open-water lead, and Navy and Penn were threatening Tech for second place.

MIT had spent its strength and dropped back out of the money in the final half-mile, however, leaving Navy and Penn to stage a close and thrilling fight for second. Both these crews were rowing a 36 for the latter part of the race, with the Red and Blue pushing the stroke up to 38 at the end to finish a bare second ahead of the Middies.

Harvard, in the meantime, had worked out to such a clear lead that it never had to raise the pace higher than 35 to finish with an easy open-water victory.

The winning time not only clipped seconds off the old upstream record set by Spike Chase's crew in 1941, but it also demolished a 17-year-old downstream record established over a slightly shorter course. Which means, in short, that the Crimson has an even more excellent crew than usual this year, a crew which must be considered the overwhelming favorite to retain the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges 2,000 meter sprint championships at Syracuse this Saturday.

Jayvees Also Win

The Crimson jayvees also turned in a performance which sets them up as strong Eastern contenders. This second boat, aided by three recent lineup changes, staged by far the most thrilling race of the afternoon to stay among the thinning ranks of the nation's unbeaten crews.

The Crimson pulled up even with Penn going under the bridge, with Navy a bare quarter-length back. All three strokes were setting a 32 beat, but the pace went up to 36 for the last half-mile, with the Middles drawing into a dead heat with Harvard, and Penn dropping back a deck-length.

Art Rouner managed to keep the Crimson shell out in front all the way, but second place changed hands several times as the stroke went up to 38 nearing the finish. Penn's sprint failed, however, and the Sailors coasted in a deck-length back of Harvard and a third of a length in front of the Red and Blue.

The summaries:

Varsity Race: Harvard, 8:48.4; Penn, 8:53.1; Navy, 8:54.1; MIT, 8:57; Columbia, 9:01.

Jayvee Race: Harvard, 9:08.5; Navy, 9:09.6; Penn, 9:11; MIT, 9:19; Columbia, 9:37.