Two weeks have passed since the Varsity crew ensconced itself as Eastern sprint champion for the second straight year, and Tom Bolles has allowed his boys to take life pretty easy during that time, exams claiming precedence over daily drills.
One month still remains before the four-mile stint against Yale on June 25, but that time will definitely not be so easy for the oarsmen. As if practicing for the longest race in American rowing were not enough to worry about, the squad must also fit in practice for the 2000 meter Olympic trials the following week.
That means that beginning next week, the Crimson will ply its way over about 15 miles of water each day, as well as sneaking in some sprints when the going gets dull. On the tenth of June, the Crimson headquarters transfers to Red Top, near New London, where practice will continue, and, if possible, intensify, until the big day.
Bolles sends his boys over the four mile course on only three practice runs, because it takes two days to get back to normal after pulling that distance under race conditions.
This is Harvard's (and Yale's) big problem as far as the all-important Olympic trials go. Bolles figures it will take the Crimson Varsity until three days before sprint encounter to build up the normal amount of energy, and that doesn't leave much time to train down to the short distance race.
On the other hand, the Crimson faced this problem, with a cross-country train ride thrown in a year ago, and turned up in Seattle just in time to break a world's record over the same distance.
One consoling factor is the almost definite shift in the trial site to Princeton's Lake Carnegic, the best course in the East. Bolles and every other coach have spent most of their spare time this spring trying to convince the Olympic committee that the original site on the turbulent and muck-filled Schuylkill River was not the place for such a momentous event.
Unbeaten Cornell still looms as Harvard's biggest contender for National laurels here. The Big Red took Yale, Penn, Princeton, and assorted other Eastern potentates to the cleaners last Saturday, thereby entrenching itself more firmly as the crew to beat. The Crimson's next biggest worry is Washington, an all-veteran boat that gave Harvard a run for its money in Seattle last year, and which recently established itself over California as western champion.
Both the Crimson Varsity and Jayvees continue with unchanged personnel, while the combination boat will be put together before the end of the week.
A new managerial hierarchy will step into power after these races. Charles F. Morgan '50, of Winthrop House and Locust Valley, N.Y., will take over Varsity reins for the coming year, with Steven Little '49, of Winthrop House and Brookline, as his assistant and H. Bradlee Perry '50, of Winthrop House and Brookline, in charge of the Varsity 150's. Harry R. Dow III '51, of Thayer Hall and North Andover, will handle the Freshman heavies, with Philip Dexter '51, of Matthews Hall and Boston, taking the yearling 150's.
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