For the first time in nine years a Crimson varsity failed to qualify for the finals of the Eastern Sprint Regatta. A matter of three feet separated the varsity shell from the third-place Princeton boat in Saturday morning's preliminaries on Washington's Potomac River.

Bill Leavitt's freshman crew--the only unscathed eight now rowing out of Newell--more than atoned for this defat, however. The powerful Yardling easily outdistanced highly-rated Cornell over the 2,000-meter course. In their open-water victory, they rowed the fastest clocking recorded by a freshman crew in the three years the regatta has been held on the Potomac. The winning time was 6:08.7.

The junior varsity squared accounts with Navy, Princeton and Pennsylvania--crews which had beaten the seconds in earlier races this season--by placing third behind Cornell and Yale in the jv finale. Except for three men this eight was substantially the same crew which as last week's varsity suffered the worst defeat in 20 years of Crimson rowing at the hands of Navy and Penn in the Adems Cup.

Cornell Takes Rowe Cup

The seconds earned their third place after a nip-and-tuck battle with Princeton, pulling away only after the last quarter mile. Times were Cornell, 6:06.1; Yale, 6:07.4; Harvard, 6:14.3; Princeton, 6:15.9; Navy, 6:17.5; and Penn, 6:22.7.

Cornell won the Rowe Cup with 13 points, earned after a first in the jv race and seconds in the varsity and freshman encounters. Penn was second with ten points and Harvard third with eight.

Racing in adjacent lanes with Princeton, the varsity oarsmen put on a terrific sprinting finish which made up nearly three-quarters of a length on the Tigers over the last half mile. The crew, averaging 179 pounds, had been together only three days. It finished rowing a 41.