Lights Repell Navy for Haines Title

The Crimson varsity lightweights, outsprinting a powerful Navy eight, won their ninth straight Haines Cup title Saturday on the Charles.

At the start Harvard jumped out to a quick lead over the Middies which the Crimson never relinquished, streaking to a two-length victory. The Crimson were clocked at 6:22.9 for the 2000-meter course, 8.9 seconds better than the Navy eight. The 6:22.9 time was the fastest turned in by any boat--lightweight or heavyweight--in Saturday's racing.

The Crimson never really let the Midshipmen get close enough to challenge. Jumping out to a six-seat lead at the start, Harvard steadily increased that margin throughout the first half of the race. At the 1000-meter mark, the Crimson lights opened up water between themselves and Navy.

By the 1300 meter mark the Crimson had stretched the lead to half a length, and by 1500 meters the margin had grown to just under two. Over the last 500 meters the two boats were matched fairly evenly, although the Crimson did manage to open up the lead a bit more for the final margin.

Not Satisfied

Crimson coach Steve Gladstone, while pleased with the win, was not totally satisfied with the varsity's performance in the second half of the race.

"We looked a littel rushed over the last 1000 and we appeared to be staggering a bit," he said after the victory. The subpar performance in the second half was due in no little part to a formidable headwind that buffetted the racers over the last 700 meters. The second half of the race was also hindered by a poor transition into sprint cadence at the end of the race.

Changing from a 34 to a 38 for the sprint, the Crimson tried to take the cadence up too quickly and lost time in the mixup.

"We just blew the first five strokes of the spring," captain Howie Burnett said afterwards.

Despite Gladstone's reservations, the varsity eight put together an excellent performance, achieving all the objectives that he had outlined during the previous week's practice. The Crimson succeeded in raising racing cadence to 34 strokes per minute, and the fast clocking was indicative of the successful transition to the higher count.

JV Upset

In JV action, Harvard's lightweights suffered a surprising upset at the hands of a strong Navy boat. The race, which, for pure excitement, was the best attraction of the day, was decided in the last 10 strokes of the 2000-meter course. At that point the Midshipmen sprinted past Harvard's fading JV eight to nip the Crimson at the finish by one second. Navy finished at 6:43.9 while the Crimson came in at 6:44.8.

"We didn't press our advantage," Gladstone said after the race. "We got a quick half-length lead at the start but didn't take advantage of it. Navy came right back, but we weren't ready for them."