Light Crew Captures Classic

Unlike many California-bound Easterners, the Harvard men's light-weight crew team was all business as it hit the shores of San Diego this past weekend.

The Crimson claimed the championship of the Collegiate Lightweight Final of the San Diego Crew Classic, covering the 2000 meter course in 6:06 Yale was a close second in 6:09, and Rutgers was third in 6:14.

Harvard, Yale and Rutgers were the only Eastern boats in the nine-team field, and their impressive finishes helped stake a claim to Eastern dominance. The University of California-Santa Barbara finished fourth, the best showing by a crew from a Western school.

The Crimson narrowly defeated Rutgers in their opening heat, while the Elis cruised in their first-round race. In the final, Harvard started strongly, but Yale had a three seat lead by the 500-meter mark. The Crimson then surged to take a narrow lead that they didn't relinquish.

Harvard hit some rough water by the 1500-meter point of the race but maintained its lead and finished a length ahead of Yale.

The winning Harvard boat was comprised of coxswain Andy Cameron, stroke John Roberts, Chip Dixon, Alex Graham, Charlie Braun, John Schoeffel, Ben Humphries, Frank Klausz and bow Guenter Meyer.

It was a positive weekend for the entire lightweight program, as the other lightweight boats also fared extremely well. In a regatta with Penn and Cornell in Philadelphia on Saturday, the Crimson swept the lightweight races.

"[The win] starts the season off nicely," Co-Captain Dixon said. "As far as the rest of the season goes, we realize that we have a lot of work to do. The crews we race will get faster and for us to compete, we have to work hard and get faster."

'As for as the rest of the season goes, we realize that we have a lot of work to do.' --Co-Captain Chip Dixon