Harvard's lightweight crew destroyed conjectures Saturday that Rutgers' lightweight team is on a par with it when it beat the Scarlet Knights by more than six boat lengths in its first race of the year on the Harlem River in New York.

Columbia's lights, who are no better than mediocre this year. edged Rutgers to take second in the triangular meet.

Harvard's time for the 2000 meter course was 6:35.6, more than 20 seconds less than the times of both of its opponents.

The Crimson got off to an excellent start, building a big lead by the 500 meter mark. "Columbia and Rutgers seemed to be floundering around at the start of the race." said Chuck Hewitt, who rowed in the number four position.

Settle Down

The Crimson then settled into a 35- strokes-per-minute pace. As soon as the crew cut its stroke to the 35, coxswain Fred Yalouris called for ten power strokes. The power ten put Harvard a length ahead of Columbia and two ahead of Rutgers.

Harvard increased its lead steadily for the rest of the race. The lights had a two and a half length lead on the field after 500 meters and about four at the 1000 meter mark.

The poor performance of the Scarlet Knights was a surprise. Rutgers has seven athletes back from last year's team which captured second in the Eastern Sprints.

Blowing It

"Rutgers blew it," said Tony Brooks, who rows in the number two position for Harvard.

Brooks added that he thought Harvard rowed extremely well. "The boat moved really well, we really clicked." he said yesterday.

Hewitt agreed "We rowed very smoothly. Right from the start it felt great to be in the boat."

"Technically, the boat still has a long way to go, although for the first time out this was a good row." coach Steve Gladstone said. "The team was very aggressive all the way." he added.

The junior varsity crew and the freshman first and second boats also won their races. giving Harvard a sweep of the meet.

Both the junior varsity and the freshman number one team pulled away from the other crews from the start to achieve easy victories. The junior varsity won by more than three lengths. the freshmen by about six lengths. The junior varsity time was 6:36.2. the freshmen's 7:02.

In the final race of the day, the freshman second boat-rowing at a quick rate of 38 strokes per minute-nipped Rutgers at the finish by less than half a boat length. Harvard's time in this race was 6:59.0

The Harvard lightweights will face M.I.T. and Dartmouth next weekend on the Charles.