Crimson Heavies Splash Navy...As Lights Grab Goldthwait

Any doubts about the Harvard varsity lightweight crew's potential to capture next Sunday's Eastern Sprints title were dispersed Saturday when the Crimson eight drowned Princeton and Yale at Princeton for the Goldthwait Cup.

Last year when the three perennial Ivy League powerhouses met, Yale shattered Harvard's perfect season. This year, both tables and stomachs were turned as Harvard destroyed the undefeated Elis in the sweltering 85-degree heat.

But although the defending Eastern champions from New Haven appeared to be the team to beat on paper, Harvard found itself battling for first place with the Tigers, who will be looking to improve on last year's second-place Sprints finish.

"We were a little nervous before the race because both teams were ranked ahead of us," varsity coxswain Greg Soghikian said yesterday. "Still, we knew Princeton was the one to beat and didn't worry about Yale."

The Tigers fulfilled Soghikian's expectations, jumping to an early two-seat lead over the Crimson while Yale lagged about six seats back in last place, where the Elis remained for the rest of the race.

Rowing a strong and steady 34-35 stroke cadence, the Crimson started to move at the 400-meter mark of the 2000-meter course and by the halfway point the boat had pulled even with Princeton.

"We weren't overstroking them during the race." Soghikian said. "But we have more raw power and just rowed harder."

The Crimson continued to gain on Princeton, working for one seat at a time, and by the 1400-meter mark. Harvard was sitting pretty with a lead of one length. But although the race was held on the Tigers' home course, the Princeton crew was not about to hospitably hand the Crimson its second win of the season.

With 500 meters to go, the Tigers began a premature sprint, which brought them to within three seats of Harvard with about 200 meters left. Yet, the prolonged high cadence took its toll in the last 20 strokes, when the exhausted Tigers slipped back a few seats to finish 1.2 seconds behind Harvard, which crossed the 2000-meter mark in 6:30.0.

The undefeated Harvard J.V. squad, which completed the race in 6:35.0. continued to make college crews look like prep school boats, edging Princeton by .2 seconds and demolishing Yale.

Still, the day was not sunny for all Harvard teams, as both freshman boats dropped their first race of their Crimson careers. Princeton finished in 6:45.9. while the Crimson had to settle for second with a time of 6:54.8.

Harvard also lost the traditional coxswain race when Soghikian and second freshman cox Andy Newman caught crabs on the port side just as 3V cox Brooks Newmark and first freshman cox T. Parker Gallagher were stroking high on the starboard side.

"We managed to prove that you can flip a four-seat boat while rowing it." Soghikian said.

Despite a ten-minute delay to upright the boat, the literal lightweights finished with the help of their overweight coxswain, captain Kevin Gaut, who had earlier stroked the varsity vessel to victory.