Men's Lights Can't Shake Tigers; Heavies Falter

Harvard has never been a bastion of major successful sports teams--with few exceptions, notably men's crew.

The men's lightweight crew barely lost in its bid for the national championship, although perennial powerhouse heavyweight crew had a rocky season.

The Crimson lightweights entered the season more than ready, and a victory in their first match set the tone for the season.

The rowers obliterated the competition in the San Diego Crew Classic, winning with a time of 6:34.98, nearly 20 seconds ahead of the Crimson's nearest competitor.

Harvard won its first five matches setting the stage for the battle for the Goldwhait Cup with arch-rivals Princeton and Yale, who were both also undefeated at the time.

Initially, the lightweights trailed Princeton by four seats and sat dead even with Yale.

The Tigers managed to maintain this lead, winning with a time of 5:56.0, but the Crimson (5:58.5) was able to edge the Elis (6:00.0).

This battle was repeated in the Eastern Sprints, the most important meet of the season short of the nationals.

Again the top-seeded Tigers proved too tough to overcome, besting the Harvard rowers by a length. The Crimson finished second in the seven-team race.

Princeton made it a clean sweep at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships on June 1, defeating Harvard in the finals by a mere .02 seconds for the national championship.

The heavyweight crew season began with the same promise.

After finishing second to a nationally-ranked Washington team at the San Diego Crew Classic, and second again to non-league Cambridge University, the Crimson came back to New England to race against familiar opponents Princeton and Brown.

In that Compton Cup, the Crimson held a half-length lead with 700 meters to go, but a strong Tiger push put the outcome in jeopardy.

The rowers held on to win by .4 seconds, and their time of 5:38.1 was only five-hundredths of a second slower than the all-time fastest Charles River time, set by Brown in 1993.

Harvard's heavyweights went on to take the prestigious Stein Cup with a seven-second win over Brown in Providence.

But late season losses to Navy, Pennsylvania (whom Harvard had defeated at the San Diego Crew Classic) and Northeastern put the Crimson in an unexpectedly disappointing position heading into the most important race of the year--the Eastern Sprints.

Northeastern and Penn again topped Harvard, which finished fourth.

Harvard Sports Stats 1995-96

Men's Crew

Record: 3-3 H, 8-1 L

Head Coach: Harry Parker (H), Charlie Butt (L)

Captains: Alex Blake '96 (H), Matt Emans '96 (L), Andrew Wilson '96 (L)

Other Key Players: Jon Gibbons '96 (H), Hugh Eakin '96 (H), Kevin Daly '96 (L)