With customary ease, Harvard's three lightweight crews up their 1969 seasons with convincing victories over the lightweights from Columbia Saturday afternoon on the Charles.

The varsity eight, coxed by Fred Yalouris and stroked by Dave Harmon, did not get off to the strong start it rowed most of the race at a 32 count.

Steve Gladstone, in his first year as Harvard coach, was happy, but not ecstatic, about his crew's performance. "It was a nice way to start the season," Gladstone said. The lightweights are hoping to duplicate last spring's undefeated record.

The junior varsity was even more successful in terms of margin of victory, winning by eight lengths. Tom Dryer, a heavyweight last year, stroked the Crimson boat.

The freshmen turned in a time of had hoped to, and the Lions enjoyed the lead for all of 30 strokes.

Harvard began to move and pulled ahead and then walked away from Columbia to win by 20 seconds in 6:07.2. The Crimson, as well as the Lions, 6:25.1, two seconds slower than the junior varsity, in its seven-length romp over Columbia's crew in the first race of the afternoon for Harvard.

The lightweights will return to action Saturday as they take on M.I.T. and Dartmouth in competition for the Biglin Bowl, which Harvard has won four years in a row.

Sprinfield Bows to Nine

Sophomore pitcher J. C. Nickens won his seconds game of the week with an outstanding seven-hitter as fielding errors and clutch hitting helped Harvard to a 6-2 victory over Springfield College on Saturday.

Starting his first game of the season, second baseman John Ballantyne lea the Crimson to its fourth win in seven games by going two for three at the plate and driving in two runs. But Springfield errors were often more crucial than hitting.

Springfield jumped to an early lead when its first batter, Juhan Laurits, hit a chopper in front for the plate that catcher Jack Turco decided to let roll foul. The ball stayed second and score on a single to right by Steve Steitz.

Harvard quickly took the lead in the bottom half of the inning. Neil Hurley singled and advanced to third on Dan DeMicheld's single. With two out, Captain John Ignacio grounded to third, but Steitz's throw pulled first baseman Alan Putz off the bag, allowing Hurley and DeMichele to score.

In the third, Hurley went to first on a fielder's choice and tried to steal second. Springfield catcher Kurt Ascherman threw the ball into center field to advance Hurley to third. Pete Varney grounded to Steitz, whose slow pick-up and bad throw to the plate allowed Hurley to slide home safely.

Springfield narrowed the score to 3-2 in the fifth without a hit. Ascherman was walked, and losing pitcher George Dixon laid a bunt down the first base line that Nickens covered. Nickens threw the ball into right field, and Ascherman scored Springfield's last run.

Harvard put the game away in its half of the fifth. Varney beat out a grounder to short and then broke up an attempted double play on Ignacio's bunt. A walk to Bill Kelley loaded the bases, and Ballantyne followed with a single into center field that scored two runners. Turco hit a sacrifice fly to right that brought Kelly home and finished Harvard's scoring.

Track Team Rolls

The varsity track team rolled to an easy victory over Brown Saturday, trouncing the Bruins, 103-50. The Crimson won 11 of 18 events in the process, and established three new track records, all of them by sophomores.

Richie Szaro sailed the javelin 231'7" to break the record in that event, Tom Spengler cracked the mile mark with a 4:09.2 clocking, and Dave Pottetti shattered the two-mile record, turning in a time of 9:13.3. In addition to breaking the track record, Szaro's throw also set a new Harvard mark.

As expected, the Crimson were especially strong in the weight and distance events. The Harvard big men carried off 10 of 12 possible places in the throwing events, and the distance men captured all but one of the nine places in the half-mile, mile and two-mile runs.

In addition to Szaro, the Crimson's weight-event victors, were Charlie Ajootian in the hammer throw, 186'10"; Bruce Hedenal in the discus, 159'7"; and Dick Benka in the shot put, 54'9".

Other Harvard winners were Keith Colburn in the 880-yard run, Jim Colburn in the 880-yard run, Jim Coleman in the high jump, Ben Lounsberry in the 440-yard hurdles, Steve Wimperley in the 220-yard dash, and Ed Dugger in the triple jump.

In the freshman meet, the Yardlings smothered Brown, 96-58, as Steve Thomas won the long jump, high jump, and high hurdles.

Penn Edges Racquetmen

Playing in its league opener, the varsity tennis team lost a very close match on Saturday to Pennsylvania, 5-4, a team that shared first place with Harvard last year.

"We had a wonderful match with Penn, and I'm quite proud of the team," said Coach Jack Barnaby. "There were many hard-fought battles and Homeric struggles."

Rocky Jarvis, playing in the number two position, outclassed his opponent and won an easy match, 6-3, 6-3. Bill Washauer had a little more trouble with his opponent but managed to beat him in two grueling sets, 11-9, 7-5.

The top two doubles teams, which Barnaby called incredibly strong, showed their muscle and won two easy matches against the Penn duos. John Levin and Rocky Jarvis won their match easily, 6-3, 6-4. The doubles team of Bill Washauer and Chris Neilsen disposed of their opponents in the same easy manner, winning their match, 6-3, 6-4.

The two matches that could have swung the meet to Harvard were those of John Levin and Larry Terrell. Levin, facing probably the best tennis player in the Ivies, Hugh Curry, beat him decisively in the first set, 6-2 but lost the last two, 4-6, 4-6. Terrel, in a three-hour match, stated out badly, won the second match and lost third, 7-9.

Penn Edges Laxmen

Harvard played solid lacrosse for three quarters, but suffered another dismal fourth period, and Penn capitalized with four goals in overtime to down the Crimson, 14-10, Saturday on the Business School field.

It was an unfortunate way to open the Ivy League schedule for Harvard, a team with a good deal of talent but a score of injured players. Penn is not one of the top teams in the league, and the Crimson will have to come on strong during the rest of the season to finish high in the standings.

Coach Bruce Munro feels the injury problem is the main reason for the fourth-quarter difficulties. Cle Landolt, Phil Zuckerman, Bruce Regan, and captain Tom Nicosia are all paying with injuries, and Sam McDowell, Pete Barber, and Kirby Wilcox--three-quarters of the defense--are still watching from the sidelines.

"We were a good-looking lacrosse team for three periods," Munro said last night. "The attack and midfield worked together better than they have all season, he added.

The high-flying Crimson built up a 6-4 lead halfway into the second quarter, and then Jim Kilkowasy, Phil Zuckerman, and Rick Frisbee registered quick goals to give Harvard a 9-4 halftime bulge.

Munro's team continued to dominate the play in the third period, but the Quakers capitalized on their few scoring opportunities and narrowed the lead to three goals, 10-7, with 15 minutes left in the game. The lone Crimson score in the third quarter was a shot by Regan into the top left corner of the net on a beautiful feed from John Ince.

It was not until the last few moments of the game that disaster struck, not long after a shot by Landolt bounce off the top bar of the Penn cage. Three different Quakers fired in shots from the left side to tie the game, 10-10, and lead to five minutes of overtime.