Heavyweights Open Season

The heavyweight crew opens its season today on the Charles River against Syracuse, M.I.T., and B.U. amidst bright prospects; meanwhile the lightweight varsity faces Navy and M.I.T. at Annapolis in its second test.

With a single line-up all week, the heavyweight varsity continued its progress. It has exhibited instances of fine power in pre-season time trials. In the Monday workout Coach Harvey Love pushed the crews through a grueling three and a half mile row at racing beat, which should have served to develop this power further. The rest of the week has been devoted to smoothing out bladework and boat balance, in order to establish a firm technical foundation upon which to apply the hoped-for power.

The first boat, while it has consistently won in recent squad races, has not been completely consistent in its ability to develop the rather elusive quality of "swing" felt in a boat in which men work together perfectly. This, however, is in the nature of a quibble, for the shell undeniably has immense power even when off its top form, yet rowing is a sport where such slight differences can be important.

Two unfortunate accidents marred the practice this wek as last year's varsity stroke fractured a rib while rowing on the junior varsity. How long he will be out is still uncertain. Also, varsity coxswain Barry Peale came down with a face rash, forcing Love to substitute the 3rd boat coxswain into the first shell for several practices.

Although the Crimson has defeated Syracuse fairly regularly in this opener, the first race of a season is always dangerous to predict. This is particularly true now, since reports that only three of last year's six returning lettermen made the first boat this spring indicates strong inter-squad competition, an experience familiar to the Crimson, also.

Today's varsity boat will likewise contain only three lettermen from the six that came back this year, while four of the oarsmen are sophomores from last year's undefeated freshman boat.

In today's other race the lightweights at Annapolis will be rowing on a difficult tidal course which is often quite rough. Besides familiarity with the course, Navy possesses another advantage in its month head-start in getting on the water. The consequent differences in bladework may be a telling margin.

Bladework, and getting sufficiently set for the catch at the beginning of a stroke, are the two main handicaps of the Crimson at the present, according to Coach Laury Coolidge. In these regards the varsity has "a long way to improve," he said. But he also indicated that he thought this past week had shown real progress.

The varsity alone made the trip to Annapolis as guests of M.I.T. in their bus, because of cuts in the budget.

Heavyweight races will be on the mile and three-quarters course in the Charles River Basin, finishing just below the M.I.T. boathouse. Freshman will race at 4:45, Junior varsity at 5:15, and the varsity at 5:45.