Lion Lightweight Rowers Face Crimson on Charles

The lightweight crews open their rowing season on the Charles today with races against Columbia. The Crimson lights, undefeated last year, are favored to win again this afternoon.

The varsity first boat is relatively young this year. Four of the oarsmen are sophomores: stroke Dave Harmon, Dick Moore, Rod Peterson, and Kim Kiley. Captain Rob Wolfe, Joe Bracewell, Fred Fisher, and John Smart will be the other starters. Sophomore Fred Yalouris will cox.

Stephen Gladstone, new coach of the varsity and junior varsity, said that his crews will try to move out fast and increase their leads. "We'll be rowing at 34 to 35 strokes per minute," he said.

Despite late ice on the Charles this spring, Gladstone feels that the boats have good speed and will be very strong. Columbia has had clear water almost all winter.

The Crimson crews have been training since the fall and worked hard on conditioning and style inside the boathouse during the winter. Double sessions on the water during spring vacation were marked by strong competition for the top eight seats. The final boatings for today's race were only made Thursday. Tom Dryer ill stroke the J.V's and Hugh Crane will cox.

Since Columbia does not have a second freshman boat, only Harvard's first freshman crew will race, with Jim Richardson stroking. While last year's Yardlings had about eight experienced oarsmen on the squad, only four of this year's freshmen have rowed before.

Gladstone expects most of the Crimson's competition this spring to come from Penn and Cornell, Columbia, however, came within three seconds of beating Princeton last week and could be a surprisingly strong contender today.

The first freshman boat will race at about 3:15 p.m., and the J.V. and varsity races will follow shortly afterwards. The course runs from the out-jut of Memorial Drive to the old M.I.T. boathouse.