Oarsmen Favored in Easterns

Although they've been racing in rough waters lately, the Harvard Crimson heavyweight squads have rowed pretty smoothly this year, at least according to the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges.

The Crimson has been seeded as the favorite to win its 22nd Rowe Cup Sunday at the 43rd EARC Heavyweight Sprints in Worcester. The Rowe Cup winner will be determined from the results of the first varsity, second varsity and first freshman boats--each of the Crimson squads in those divisions are seeded first by the EARC.

The defending-national champion Harvard varsity boat (6-1) will be trying to win its first Sprints championship since 1985 and thus avenge a disappointing fourth-place finish in last year's race.

The Crimson's only defeat this season came at the hands of Navy and Penn two weeks ago in extremely rough conditions on the Severn River in Annapolis, Md.

"Because of the problems we had in Annapolis, we've worked a lot on our ability to handle rough weather and I think we've made a lot of progress," Coach Harry Parker said. "On Sunday, I expect Princeton to be tough and Brown, with a changed lineup since we beat them earlier, has a history of doing well late in the season, especially at the Sprints."

In the varsity division, Princeton is seeded second, followed by Penn, Northeastern, Brown and Navy. Harvard will race against Navy, Syracuse, Cornell and MIT in the morning preliminary heat and the top six finishers in the heats will race in the championship later that afternoon.

Rowing for the Crimson will be from bow to stern, Dan Grout, John Bernstein, second-year Captain Steve Wayne, Pete Sharis, Donald Fawcett, Jack Rusher, Phil Schuller, John Amory, and coxswain James Crick.

"The Penn-Navy race was just luck, because of some bad strokes," Crick said. "We're a little better prepared for anything now."

The JV squad will be trying to keep its undefeated record intact. It is seeded ahead of Brown, Cornell, Northeastern, Penn and Yale.

"We're a strong crew and we can probably outrow anybody over 2000 meters," JV crew member Mike O'Toole said. "We just have to set our strong pace which other crews really can't keep up with."

The Crimson (7-0) narrowly beat out Brown by one second in early April and should be challenged by the Bruins.

Harvard's first freshman boat (4-0) has defeated all of its prospective opponents in the Sprints final by at least four-and-a-half seconds this season except for Yale, which it hasn't raced yet.

Lightweights Yearn for Jowe Cup

The Harvard lightweight crew program will be competing this weekend for its 17th Jowe Cup Championship in the 25th EARC Lightweight Sprints. The Crimson hasn't won the Jowe Cup since 1982.

"The environment at the Sprints makes it a test of pressure, especially for the younger crews," varsity coxswain Mark Coyne said.

Harvard will be pressured by Princeton, which handed the three Crimson boats (each 3-1) their only losses of the year at the H-Y-P Championships two weeks ago.

The second-seeded varsity boat will be racing against fourth-seed Rutgers (Lightweight Coach Charles Butt's alma mater), sixth-seed Cornell, Penn, and Columbia in its preliminary race. Princeton, which beat Harvard by three-and-a-half seconds, is seeded first, with Yale third and Navy fifth.

"We've been improving our overall race technique over the last two weeks," Butt said, "and with a good race, I'm confident we can win."

The Crimson varsity lightweight crew on Sunday will be bowman John Velyvis, Tom Patterson, John Leete, Andy Hoyt, Captain Jim Himes, Sam Shuffler, Eric Davis, stroke Michael Horvath, and Coyne.

"We've finally made the jump to trust ourselves at a higher cadence," Coyne said, "and we've been hitting 42 or 43 [strokes per minute] consistently off the start."

The JV lightweight crew is also seeded second behind the Tigers, which it lost to by one-and-a-half seconds. The freshman lightweights are seeded third behind Rutgers and Princeton.