The Harvard freshmen are inexperienced. Only one man in the boat rowed before entering college, while Penn's freshman enjoy exactly the opposite situation. The Harvard crew is outweighed by 15 pounds per man, which can make a lot of difference.
Scrappy Lights
The Penn frosh last week defeated Yale by the cruel margin of four and a half lengths.
A more interesting comparison is the two crews' relative margins over Princeton. The Quakers triumphed by three seconds. Harvard's narrow victory against the Tigers last week was inconclusive because of mishaps in the Princeton boat.
Chances are that the Crimson freshmen will have a tough time keeping up with Penn's brute-boat. Weight might be the telling difference over the entire course.
But the Crimson freshmen are a tough and scrappy little crew. Their sheer aggressiveness broke Princeton last week, and more of the same may work against Penn Saturday.
Lightweights
Harvard's undefeated lightweight crew will have a chance to find out just how good it really is when it races 2000 meters for the coveted Goldthwait Cup against Princeton and Yale Saturday afternoon at Princeton.
"Princeton should provide our stiffest challenge to date," said coach Bo Andersen. "They lost by only one second to Cornell and were dead-even with them through the first 1200 meters. We have to beat Princeton decisively if we're going to have any chance against Cornell next week."
Cornell and Harvard, the traditional titans of eastern lightweight rowing, will have their only showdown of the season next Saturday at the Eastern Sprints in Worcester. Last year Cornell took the trophy, and Harvard finished fourth behind Penn and Princeton.
Andersen said he has "no idea how good Yale is," but he noted that last week they lost to M.I.T. Two weeks ago the Crimson left M.I.T. in its wake by three full lengths.
New Boat
After Harvard's 22-second triumph last week over Dartmouth and Navy, Andersen has decided to stick with the new Stampfli boat for the rest of the season. Early in the week he tried to race the Stampfli against the Pocock, but the results were inconclusive. The comparison showed, at least, that the new, shorter boat was no slower than the Pocock.
The boatings are also set for the rest of the season. The boat's line-up consist of captain Brian Sullivan, cox; Joe Bracewell, stroke; Bill Braun, 7; Rob Wolff, 6; Ken Miller, 5; Fred Fisher, 4; Jim Gerrity, 3; Joe McPherson, 2; and Chris Cutler, bow.
Harvard has captured the Goldthwait Cup for the last ten years in a row. Harvard has won it 22 times, while Princeton and Yale have claimed it ten and nine times respectively.