Oarsmen Sweep Past Yale in 123rd Regatta

NEW LONDON, Conn.--For the 123rd time, the Harvard and Yale crews lined up here on the Thames River.

And for the 72nd time, the Harvard heavyweight crew team won.

The Crimson heavies (7-1 overall, 3-1 Ivy League) bested the Elis by two boat lengths yesterday over the four-mile course.

Harvard's varsity eight finished in 20 minutes, 50.4 seconds with Yale finishing at 20:58.9. The Crimson's boat consisted of the same nine members as the Eastern Sprints championship boat.

The Crimson took an early two-seat lead over a rebuilt Bulldog crew at the one-mile mark and slowly but relentlessly built on it.

Strong crosswinds buffeted both crews, and turned it into a contest of which crew had the greater pulling power. The winds made it difficult to row smoothly on the choppy water, thereby throwing much of the conventional pre-race strategy out of kilter.

Since the race is so long, strategy usually consists of one boat countering the other boat's move immediately instead of making the opposition tire out gaining an early lead.

Harvard Coach Harry Parker said the race conditions were "very, very tough."

"The boats were constantly being pushed off-keel," Parker added. "The boats not only had to pull against the wind but constantly keep on keel. I thought both coxswains handled it well."

Yale finished the season with five losses. "We definitely feel we are the number two crew in the country," Eli oarsman Struan Robertson said.

The Crimson heavyweight team goes on to defend its national collegiate title at the Cincinnati Regatta next weekend.

Harvard's victories in the two-mile freshman race and the three-mile junior varsity tilt gave the Crimson its first sweep over the Elis since 1986.

The freshman team came in with a time of 10:01.6 with Yale finishing with a time of 10:12.2. The JV team also won its race convincingly, finishing in 15:10 while Yale followed in 15:18.

The Crimson has now captured the classic showdown five years in a row, and it leads the overall series, 72-51.

Before Harvard's present winning streak, Yale had won the race for four straight years. Previous to the Eli string, the Crimson had taken 17 straight races from 1963 to 1980.

The Harvard-Yale heavyweight race is the oldest intercollegiate athletic championship in the United States, dating back to 1858.