In the annual regatta of the Intercollegiate Rowing Association to be held at Poughkeepsie on June 21, the race for eight-oared university shells will be over a three-mine course. This announcement has been made by Charles Halsted Mapes of Columbia, chairman of the board of stewards, following an investigation as to the advisability of cutting one mile off the regular distance.
The elimination of the fourth mile will mean the extension of an invitation to Princeton and the Navy to compete with Columbia, Cornell, Pennsylvania, Syracuse and the winner of the Pacific Coast regatta on the Hudson next June. The Tigers and the Midshipmen have kept away from Poughkeepsie because of their opposition to the fourth mile.
It is now very likely that Wisconsin will rehabilitate rowing as an intercollegiate sport and once more send its eights to the Hudson. Minnesota and Michigan have started movements to organize crews and may also find their way to the Hudson.
Change in Eligibility Rules.
In addition to the three-mile reform Mr. Mapes announced a change in the eligibility rules which will put a curb on the presence in university boats of men who had gained experience on boat club crews. The change makes the standard of entry into the Poughkeepsie regatta similar to that which governs entry into events of the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America.
Any man who has rowed at a club must now be in residence at a college at least one year before he can pull a sweep for his college.
The change in the eligibility rules makes it imperative that all contestants be university students in good standing. It will also prevent any recurrence of objections which came up last season.
How About the Harvard-Yale Race?
The New York Sun makes the following suggestion apropos of the change:
"Now that the board of stewards of the Intercollegiate Rowing Association has decided that the fourth mile is injurious for young oarsmen Harvard and Yale stand alone as exponents of the deadly fourth mile. How long can they afford to ignore the judgment of the majority?
"The leading coaches of the country have shown that three-mile races are sufficient tests of the oarsmanship and stamina of the collegians without subjecting them to the heart strain which makes the fourth-mile so dangerous. How much longer will Harvard and Yale bow to a tradition that is both false and harmful?"
Ithacan Track Men at Work.
With the opening of the track season but a short time away, candidates for the Cornell track team are reporting in increasing numbers to Coach Jack Moakley. At first there was a marked scarcity of men in the sprints, weights and hurdles, but a vigorous appeal from the management brought fourth a large number of new men. The schedule has not been decided but will be much like last year's and will include the annual relay race with the University short distance team.
Although Cornell has a lot of good material this year in the distance runs and in some of the field events, the society of good sprinters and hurdlers is going to make the task of building up another championship team more difficult than usual. When Moakley had Reller and Van Winkle he was reasonably certain of placing in one or both sprints, and with Starr and Gubb in college the Ithacans were amply protected in the hurdles. Now that all these men are gone, the university must depend on untried material. The most uncertain branches, on the track teak are therefore both dashes and hurdles, although Watt looks promising for the 220-Yard hurdle race.
Of the six men who ran on the one mile relay team at different times only three are now in college. The team will probably be made up of Crim, who secured fourth place in the 440 at the Intercollegiates last year, Bartsch and Shelton from last year, and Culbertson, jumper and Sprinter.
Windnagle seems to be the fastest half miller in sight for the two-mile relay team, and it is expected that Hudson, who showed possibilities on his freshman team, will also hold down a place. Mc-Dermott of Exeter, who showed up well in cross-country, will probably be chosen for third place, but the fourth place seems to be vacant.
There will be no difficulty with the four-mile relay team if Moakley decides to have one for the Penn. Carnival. He has in Windnagle the best college miler in the East, and in Wenz, McDermott and Hudson, men nearly as good. In spite of the loss of three veterans, Cornell will have a strong quartet.
In addition to the relay teams, Moakley will use the winter meets to try out a number of this weight men, jumpers, vaulters, and hurdlers.
Varsity Clubs to Organize
Plans are being made for the formation of the National Federation of Varsity Clubs, an organization composed of the "letter-men" clubs of Yale, Pennsylvania, Cornell, Columbia and Harvard. The representatives of the various institutions will meet at Columbia on February 6.
The University and Pennsylvania have had these clubs for some time, and the recent formation of the "Y" Club at Yale. gave fresh impetus to the movement. The chief purpose of the federation will be to promote more friendly relations between the athletes of the several colleges.
Tiger Seniors Have Business Plans.
The senior class at Princeton has instituted a class employment committee to take charge of the business opportunities open to the class on graduation. Individual statistic blanks sent out among members of the present senior class show that 200 out of the 350 men in the class have not decided what they will do after graduation. It is the aim of this newly organized committee to centralize the inquiries which come to the president of the university and the officers of the several classes from big concerns and to canvass the class to determine what men want positions and what kind of places they prefer.
Since the university has no very direct connection with the business world the class of 1915 maintains a class employment bureau which, however, is a graduate organization both in origin and maintenance. The present senior class has started an innovation by taking hold of the problem while it is still an undergraduate body. In former years various business houses have tried to get graduates, but there has been no way to reach the undergraduates except individually. The new system is expected to act as a medium of communication between the two.
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