Columbia roared off the starting floats Saturday down at the Charles River Basin and matched the Crimson lightweight eight stroke for stroke....for about two strikes. At stroke three Ned Reynolds and company bid bon voyage to the Lions crew, and left the Columbia eight high and dry as Harvard cruised to an easy six jength victory in the impressive time of 6 minutes and 12 seconds.

Coach John Higginson's premature apprehension can now be ignored, since his crews lived up to their pre-season billing and established themselves as the boats to beat in the East.

The Jayvee boat relegated its Lion opposition to pussycat status, winning by a whomping 25 seconds. The JV shell set up well throughout the race behind the stroke of Mark Sieber.

Jack Poley brought two years of experience to the seven seat, and junior Gil Welck, returning from a one-year retirement, took up his oar at the six seat. The rest of the boat rounded out with Tim Hackert at five, Peter Fuchs at four, Ed Timmins at three. R.T. Lyman and Greg-Miller returned to the two seat and bow positions respectively, and Paul Chessin handled the megaphone duties.

The third varsity boat, according to Higginson, turned in a particularly good effort coming back from a poor start to overtake the Columbia J.V. eight by almost two lengths. It was, however, well behind the Harvard J.V.

The varsity also suffered from a sloppy start, but was still able to gain seats on the hapless Lions. Reynolds settled the boat at a cadence of 34 strokes per minute. Coxswain Burt Levitch was pleased with the last half of the race.

"We weren't overconfident going into the race, but after a sloppy second five hundred, I thought we rowed a very strong ast 1000," he said.

Levitch's only major complaint was that his post-race dip in the Charles was too cold.

Higginson admitted yesterday he was a little surprised by the strong time of the varsity. (The time beat a powerful MIT heavyweight clocking by 8 seconds in the near perfect racing conditions.) However, Higginson said yesterday. "I'm a bit suspicious of good first performances. But considering that Columbia was not much better than in previous years and provided little challenge, the time was a good one."

Higginson said he feels the varsity should shave about four to six seconds off Saturday's time to establish themselves as a good crew. Competition next Saturday for the Biglin Bowl will pit the Crimson against one of the premier spollers of the year, the Technicians from downstream, Dartmouth will also be on hand for the 11 a.m. race.