Harvard Crew Gains Victory In New York

Harvard's heavyweight crew, the Olympic bridesmaids, scored a smashing victory in the featured eight-oar event in the 90th National Rowing Championships in New York Sunday.

Pulling away at the halfway point, the Crimson scored a four-and-one-half length romp over the West Side Rowing Club on Orchard Beach Lagoon. The New York Athletic Club, Union Boat Club, and Penn Athletic Club were left far in the Crimson's wake.

One Laconia Oarsman

Technically, the victors were known as Harvard-Laconia, since the boat was composed of one member of the Laconia Rowing Association, seven Crimson varsity oarsmen, and the Harvard coxswain.

The triumph didn't mean too much, however, since the Olympic-bound Vesper Boat Club eight sat on the sidelines for the event. The Philadelphia oarsmen are the only crew to have beaten Harvard this year; they beat the Crimson by one length in the Olympic Trials July 11.

Lopsided Victory

Although they sat out of the main event, Vesper scored a lopsided victory in the overall competition, which consisted of nine races. Harvard-Laconia was entered in only the feature race.

Considered by many "the team to beat" at the Olympic trials on Orchard Beach Lagoon in New York earlier this summer, the Harvard crew expected to have the most trouble with the University of California shell. The Vesper club won the finals, however, with the Crimson second, California third, and the Yale boat fourth. Before the trials, the Harvard boat had never even been behind in a race.