Three Undefeated Navy Crews Drill For Crucial Harvard Tilt on May 29

ANNAPOLIS, MD., May 12--With a Varsity boat devoid of Seniors, Navy's crew hopes for this season and next are high, for the smooth stroking Varsity is as yet undefeated and apparently Harvard is the only obstacle between it, and an undefeated sprint season. The Adams Cup Race on May 29th will therefore be the big race for the Blue and Gold, and the Middles are beginning a three weeks' training grind in anticipation of that race.

Navy has defeated Columbia, Princeton, and Syracuse, and Cornell on successive Saturdays by various comfortable margins. The Navy stroke has been consistently one or two beats lower than that of their opponents and yet they have won with apparent ease.

Coach "Buck" Walsh's first boat has six Juniors and two Sophomores. Because of the dearth of "N" winners in the present Senior class it was necessary to elect a Junior as captain. A. B. Yeats holds this position and rows at number six, while other "N" winners, G. A. Whiteside and V. E. Schumacher, row at five and stroke. These three rowed with last year's Varsity while the other three Juniors, P. G. Schultz at bow, J. L. Erickson at two, and G. C. Gullard at three are J. V. veterans. The two '39 representatives are L. P. Spear at seven and F. W. Kittler at four. Spear was a substitute for last year's fresh crew while Kittler, who is the dark horse of this year's Varsity, was unable to make even the third plebe boat. H. A. Rowe '37, is cox. Navy's crew uses a stroke invented by its own coach, Buck Walsh. It is about half way between the short stroke used by Harvard and Washington, and the long, back-breaking sweep used by Navy last year.

In all three races Navy has taken a slight jump at the start and increased its lead slowly. The boat gets plenty of run, and the crew settles well. The Varsity was timed in 8:54, 6 for one and three-quarter miles under almost ideal conditions against Cornell, while in the Columbia races two weeks before the time for a mile and a half was 9:07 in quite a strong head wind. Against Princeton and Syracuse the time for a mile and three-quarters was 9:24.6.

Navy's JV and Plebe crews have been anywhere from 10 to 15 seconds behind the Varsity in their races, and both crews are undefeated. All of the JV's have had experience before, both as Freshmen or JV's, and some of the plebes have rowed elsewhere.