Underdog Crimson Eights To Race in Eastern Sprints

West Germany's world champion Ratzeburg Rowing Club is a pretty sure bet to add another victory to its long undefeated string in the EARC Sprint Championships in Worcester Saturday, but the college heavyweight crews will be gunning first for top-seeded Cornell.

The undefeated Engineers from M.I.T., meanwhile, are favored to take the lightweight honors in the big Eastern championship regatta on Lake Quinsigamond, where the races will start early in the morning and run throughout the day.

Big Red Favored

"Cornell is favored," said heavyweight coach Harry Parker, "but it's not too clear by how much." Bunched behind the Big Red as its chief threats are the Crimson, M.I.T., Yale, Columbia, Wisconsin, and Penn. Any of these six "could push and beat Cornell" Parker said.

Penn, which gave the Crimson their first defeat of the year last Saturday by a half-length margin, has worked this year primarily at the 2000-meter sprint distance, and could be the eight to upset Cornell. But Parker is not pessimistic. "We're right on the brink of hitting a really good speed," said Parker, and if the heavyweights do hit it, anything could happen.

While M.I.T. is top-seeded among the lightweights, Cornell and the Crimson are given the best chance to break the Engineer's unbeaten record. Second-seeded Harvard has improved considerably since its one loss of the season three weeks ago to M.I.T., and an upset is not inconceivable.

Not content with their victory over Yale and Princeton last Saturday, the varsity oarsmen have shown further improvement this week, and yesterday's time trial over the 2000-meter course was quite a bit faster than Thursday's. "We'll be fighting long odds to beat M.I.T.," said Cabot, "but we're definitely the dark horse Saturday."