All Six Harvard Crews Seeded First In Easterns

Seed 'em first. You mean the men's varsity heavyweights? Yup. How about the varsity lights? Seed 'em first. How about...? Sorry to cut you off but I told you already--seed 'em first. Huh? Seed 'em all first--every one of them. You mean all six crews? Yup, all six Harvard crews; the varsity, J.V., and freshman heavyweight and lightweight eights are all seeded first entering the EARC Sprints in Worcester Sunday.

The powerful varsity heavyweight will lead the Crimson into battle on unpredictable Lake Quinsigamond. Gaining speed consistently since an opening race fourth place finish in the San Diego Crew Classic, the varsity is undefeated in regular season clashes. Last week they powered past Penn in Philadelphia by an impressive margin of 9.3 seconds.

The heavyweight second varsity and freshman boats are also undefeated and have had little trouble with their opponents so far. The freshmen lost one rower due to disciplinary probation on Tuesday, but their coach Ted Wasbhurn said last night, "The crew still includes eight exceedingly capable oarsmen." The new eighth man, Howard Johnson, previously stroked the undefeated second boat and led them to come from behind victories in his three races.

The varsity lightweights, which lost to Rutgers in their first race of the season, but has since remained unbeaten, is in the most competitive division. There are about six boats with a chance of winning.

John Higginson said yesterday seeding the Crimson first "was a mistake." Penn, which is undefeated, should have been given the tope seed, he said. However, he added, "Our boat can, if it chooses to, go as fast as anybody."

The phenomenal J.V. lights will be chasing their 12th consecutive springs victory, and this season's record suggests they should have little trouble gaining it. Their smallest margin of victory thus far this season is 11 seconds.

First-year coach Jon Brock's freshman lights will also enter the sprints after a tremendous season of victories by a length or more.