Men's Crew Stumbles During Easterns

For Harvard men's crew, things didn't exactly go as planned at the Eastern Sprints this past weekend.

The lightweights made a devastating faux pas a quarter of the Way through the race, and then wound up finishing an absurd fifth.

And the heavyweights, though close to eventual winner Brown throughout the race, watched second place evaporate into third after Dartmouth blew past them in the final meters.

Everything was going great for Harvard's lights at the beginning of the race. The Crimson had pulled out to an early advantage and were three seats ahead of Princeton and a half length in front of the rest of the field.

But everything went awry, however, at the 450-meter mark. At that point, Chris McGarry made what turned out to be a fatal mistake. The senior three-man "caught a crab," allowing his oar to bounce awkwardly into the water.

"The crab was a boat-stopper," captain John Roberts said. "It was early, but things were going our way. We were racing exactly how we wanted at that point."

The Crimson could not recover. Although the lights passed Navy and got close to Cornell after being shuffled to the rear, they weren't going to get back into the race. Dartmouth, Princeton, Yale and Cornell all finished--in that order--ahead of Harvard.

"We scrambled to recover as quickly as we could, but in championship racing there is really no room for errors," Roberts said. "After the crab, we could not even get close to the leaders."

The mistake was especially frustrating because the lights were focused solely on Sprints after disappointing performances at the Harvard-Yale-Princeton regatta and against Dartmouth.

"We entered the whole event very focused on the single task of winning the finals," Roberts said. "We only did what was necessary to qualify in our heat. We put it all on the line in the afternoon and then we beat ourselves."

Although the morale shock from this type of loss is usually a problem, it is the least of the Crimson's worries at the point. With their fifthplace finish, the lightweights may not be able to defend their 1993 national championship. Only the top three crews from Sprints go to Nationals.

"If we are going to go, [coach] Charlie Butt will have to get permission from the other schools involved," Roberts said. "Knowing some of the coaches, however, I think they will allow it."

Unquestionably, the Harvard heavyweights will be going to the Nationals.

While undefeated Brown took Sprints for the second consecutive year, Harvard's heavies placed third.

"It was a really good race," junior bow Scott Henderson said. "We were right with Brown the whole time."

Thought never in the lead, Harvard executed its race plan to near perfection. The Crimson, which focused heavily on its traditionally weak start, prevented Brown from establishing a big lead early.

The Bears only had a three-seat lead at the 500-meter mark and didn't pull away decisively until the 1000-meter mark.

"Against a crew like Brown, you just really have to stay close," Henderson said. "If they get an early lead, they'll just thrash you."

Dartmouth, the second-place finisher, only blipped onto Harvard's radar screen late in the race. The Big Green, who had an outside lane, was out of the Crimson's field of vision when they made its move.

"Psychologically speaking, Dartmouth had a big edge," Henderson said. "When you manage to get ahead in the last 500 meters at Sprints, you don't relinquish the lead."

After a long lay-off because of exams, Harvard will be back on the water in a pre-National tune-up at Yale June 4. The Crimson were about a length and a half in front of the Eli at Sprints.

"Yale is going to be tough," Henderson said. "They have some seniors who have been in the boat since they were sophomores and I think they are just really sick of losing Harvard-Yale. They are definitely going to be gunning for us."