Harvard Heavies, Lights Take Crowns; Radcliffe Crews Race to Third, First

Gliding to a three-boat-length victory over Brown Saturday, the Harvard men's heavyweights retained the Stein Trophy for the 17th consecutive year to highlight Crimson crew action over the weekend.

The men's lightweights, also rowing on the Charles, conquered MIT and Dartmouth to cop the Biglin Bowl, while the Radcliffe Black and Whites had mixed results in races at Dartmouth.

Racing in terrible weather conditions, the heavies overpowered Brown on the revised 1300-meter race course.

"We had to contend with a strong headwind from the port side which blew us to starboard--the blades were hitting the water during a lot of the race," three-seat Charlie Storey said. "It was just as windy but not as choopy as the basin--it was definitely an uncharacteristic race, but the team really came together," he added.

"The first ten strokes looked strong and Brown faded fast," coxswain Ted Tsomides '82 said. The stroke of the boat was 43 at the start, then settled to a 36 pace for the rest of the race, finishing in 4:09.2.

In even worse weather, the Harvard lights outrowed MIT in the whitecapridden basin, while the Dartmouth shell fared worst of all--sinking bow first in the rough water. The winning time of 7:38.0 for the 2000-meter course was indicative of the wind and water conditions--a normal time for that distance is around 6:10.

"It was a pretty good slugfest. I didn't think it was much of a race, though," bowman Ethan Goldings said. "We must have gained an extra 400 pounds of water."

"The wind came up all of a sudden. We had to spend as much concentration and effort on the recovery as we did on the drive," cox Greg Soghikian said.

The lights started ahead of MIT and down on Dartmouth, but at the 500-meter mark, they came even with the Green. After 700 meters. Dartmouth sunk and Harvard remained in sole possession of the lead, a length ahead of MIT. The Engineers closed the gap briefly, but Harvard took a power ten and opened it back up, rowing at a cadence of 32 all the way to the finish for the last 500 meters.

After the race, the MIT boat barely made it back to its boathouse before it, too, submerged in the choppy water, and had to be towed into the dock.

The win regained the Biglin Bowl for the lights after they lost it last year to MIT by one second. The light's record now stands at 3-0.

Meanwhile, in better race conditions in Hanover, N.H., the Radcliffe lightweights remained undefeated (3-0) by outstroking Syracuse and Dartmouth this weekend.

The lights got off to a seven-seat lead just after the start and never relinquished their lead. At about the 1000-meter mark, Syracuse started to sprint and made up lost water. The Black and Whites countered with a sprint of their own, holding off the composite boat of heavier and larger Syracuse rowers to win by six seats.

"I think we really got it together and held our own pretty well." Suzanne Hassel, captain of the lights, said. "We lengthened our stroke because of the tailwind and outsprinted them at the end," she added.

The Radcliffe heavyweights succumbed to stronger B.U. and Dartmouth crews and held off the Syracuse squad by one seat in their race Saturday. "It was a good course with even better competition," coach Carie Graves said.