The Harvard lightweight varsity swept away from a Big Green crew on a breezy April Saturday to capture its twelfth consecutive Biglin Bowl on Dartmouth's home course on the Connecticut River.
Dartmouth loomed up as a prime early season challenge to the Crimson's eights after it so handily outrowed John Higginson's charges in Henley last summer. And Higginson was not about to let Harvard's crew underestimate Hanover's popock pullers. On Friday he stopped his varsity's pre-race practice to remind last year's first boaters "just how quickly Dartmouth can row."
Well, Higginson's fears materialized immediately Saturday as the Big Green jumped out to a half length lead at the outset. But slowly Ned Reynolds and company got their boat together, and by the 1000 meter mark the Crimson eight had pulled even with the host boat.
MIT, the third boat in the race, was never in the race. As one oarsman put it, "MIT was just a joke all the way." The Technicians finished nearly five lengths out of the rowing.
Still very much in the race, however, were the two Ivy combatants. But the Crimson, who had steadily been making up lost water on Dartmouth in the first half of the race, decided there was no reason to change a winning streak and throughout the third 500 meters the Harvard boat motored out to a length lead.
"We really moved on them in that third 500," number six man Gil Welch said. "It was a helluva tough race, and we all felt we had won a race rather than just having rowed a piece with another boat."
The final margin for the Crimson was a shade of open water over Dartmouth as the varsity eight crossed the finish line with a fine 6:09,5 clocking.
The J.V. race held little of the mid-race excitement of the varsity contest. After the first 20 strokes the second boat had quickly opened up a length lead on both its Big Green and MIT competition.
"We were afraid that the Dartmouth J.V. would be strong, just because their varsity is so good," stroke Kevin Cunningham said yesterday. "We didn't expect any trouble from MIT at all."
The Crimson received no trouble from either crew as it increased its lead throughout the race. By the 1000 meter mark it was simply a question of how much rather than whom. A ragged sprint over the last 300 meters didn't help the J.V. cause much, but the final margin was still two lengths on its Charles River neighbors and a whomping 20 seconds over Dartmouth.
The 3V boat raced out at Lake Quinsigamond on Saturday and rowed away with the Davenport Cup in a four-second victory against a Worcester Polytech Institute heavyweight crew.
In other competition out at Worcester, the second frosh lights were edged out by the WPI J.V. boat, while the third freshman boat was victorious against its WPI counterpart.
Yardling coach Gregg Stone's first boat left MIT and Dartmouth some four lengths in its wake, in a furious battle for second. Stone's charges cruised in with a winning time of 6:29.8.
Next week the lightweights come home to the friendly waters of the Charles, seeking to avenge the lone blemish on a three-year winning streak which was inflicted by Navy last year. The mid-shipmen just edged out the Crimson last spring on their home course, when Harvard's seven man caught a bad crab and was thrown from the boat. Harvard will be looking for its twelfth Haines Cup in the 13-year history of the race.
"Navy could be a challenge next week," Welch said. "But right now it looks as if Penn is shaping up to be our strongest competition. They are looking very solid," he said.
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