Gallantly coming down the home stretch 20 lengths behind the Lowell House crew, Leverett's eight yesterday took first honors for pluck as Lowell, Kirkland, Eliot and Adams earned places in the finals which will be rowed off tomorrow.

Rowing as if they were swinging down the course on a practice spin, the Bellboys crossed the finish line seven lengths ahead of Adams House, with the Gold Coasters just a bit more than a length ahead of Dunster. Leverett was fourth.

In the second trial race Kirkland jumped into an early lead when they were nearly fouled by Eliot and staved off the last minute sprint of the Elephants to win by a bare quarter of a length, with Winthrop three lengths back.

Times of the two trials were nearly the same, Lowell crossing the line of the Henley distance in 7:14, while Kirkland's winning time was just three-fifths of a second slower. Conditions in the Basin were ideal.

Starting times were delayed a little by the Leverett House crew, whose number seven man felt a little too strong in a practice start and broke his oar in half; but when Bert Haines got the boats off from the start of the first race, Lowell immediately jumped into a lead they were never to relinquish.

Adams stuck close to the Bellboys for the first half mile and then dropped slowly back. Lowell was rowing 33 and Adams 32 as they swung easily down the course. Leverett, rowing unbelievably poorly, was out of the race from the start, while Dunster staged a surprise by putting up a game fight as they clung to the heels of the Gold Coast boys.

On the part of Leverett and Dunster it may be said that they had difficulty all season getting a full boat out and the numerous changes from day to day disrupted their practice sessions Neither of them kept good time, and the Bunnies were also having great difficulty with their balance.

By the half mile Lowell had opened up a length and a half Adams was holding tenaciously onto their length over Dunster, while it was already getting difficult to judge the open water back of them.

It was almost mechanical in the way that the Lowell boys opened up their lead, while Adams, obviously not bothering to fight with them, came down to finish without raising their stroke, satisfied with second place. Adams was 24 seconds behind Lowell, Dunster four seconds behind back, and Leverett 42 seconds more.

Where the first race had been a case of no fight forth lead the Eliot-Kirk-land battle that was to follow was a thriller, with Winthrop, third in this event, out of the running most of the way.

A fast start in this race was almost spoiled when the Eliot coxswain got his bearings mixed and swung onto the Kirkland eight; only Haines' yell and quick pull on the tiller ropes averted a nasty crash and the Elephants dropped back about a third of a length while this was going on.

At the half mile the Deacons led by half a length, and they were rowing a snappy 34 beat behind their big stroke Tom Talbot while Dave Emerson was stroking the Elephants easily a couple of strokes lower.

As they approached the bridge, Eliot, still rowing at a lower stroke, began to creep up on Kirkland, and they cut the latter's lead to a deck length when they shot under Massachusetts Avenue. At the mile the Elephants had gotten up to 37 and were leading by inches and as they came down to the finish they were weaving around all over the river.

With only 400 yards left, both crews were rowing 37 and Eliot still had a slight lead, but Kirkland was coming back and they crossed the finish line the winner by a narrow margin in 7:14.6 Winthrop was three lengths back.

From the referee's launch it was impossible to judge accurately the Deacons' lead. On shore Eliot supporters declared they were defeated by "not a mite more than four feet," while Kirkland followers said it was an "easy half length."

The first and second boats in each heat, namely, Lowell, Adams, Kirkland and Eliot, will meet Thursday afternoon to decide who shall meet Yale the following morning. At present it looks like Lowell as the winner by a narrow margin.