Crimson Eights Sweep Columbia Lightweights

The Crimson opened its bid to regain domination of the Eastern lightweight rowing field with a clean sweep of a confident Columbia crew on New York's Harlem River Saturday.

In the closest race of the afternoon, Coach Fred Cabot's varsity 150's bucked a stiff headwind and a rapid tide to pull out a six-tenths of a second victory. Behind at the start, the Crimson quickly took the lead and held it over the higher stroking Lion eight for the rest of the race.

Columbia repeated its pattern of taking a quick lead with a higher-stroked and longer start in the other four races, and each time the Crimson pulled ahead to stay although stroking at a slower pace. The JV lightweights had a one-second margin of victory, while the third boat clobbered its Lion opponents by five lengths.

In the freshman races, the first boat stroked its way to a two-length victory in very rough rowing conditions. The second boat recorded a four-second victory over a shorter course.

Coach Cabot said the results were "just about what I had expected," but added it was difficult to judge the varsity's performance objectively because the crew had not rowed the Harlem course before. Cabot explained that as a result of general confusion caused by rough weather, cox Chris Hamilton didn't get a chance to go over the course and this may have slowed the varsity somewhat. Cabot also noted that the Crimson might have been able to take better advantage of the fast tides.

In addition, the Harlem's slanted finish line, unknown to Hamilton, caused a miscalculation. Expecting a straight finish line, the varsity rowers thought they had nearly a length lead at the end, instead of inches.

Though the varsity "rowed a good race" in the midst of the confusion, Cabot said that it "had quite a way to go if it's going to get above the heap." He pointed out that Columbia is greatly improved over last year and the Crimson will be in a "real rat-race" with MIT, Cornell, and Navy as well as the Lions.