The state of Maryland is famous for crabs. But those succulent little shellfish were not what the Harvard heavyweight crew was served this weekend when the Crimson traveled to Annapolis to take on a menu of Navy and Penn oarsmen.

Instead, Harvard found a new entree of crabs popping out of the choppy water of the Severn River and grabbing onto its blades. In the end, however, the varsity eight prevailed, rowing home with the Adams Cup and maintaining its "tops in the East" status as it goes into next week's Eastern Sprints.

The varsity went off the line against the Quaker crew it had beaten earlier in the season in San Diego and the host Midshipman eight. The Crimson's start, however, was none too good, and Penn quickly moved out to a half-length lead. By the 500 meter mark, Harvard had settled and was smoothly rowing through the boys from Philly when the first serving of crabs arrived.

Dave Bixby, number two man for the varsity, caught a bad crab around the 800 meter mark, which allowed Penn to creep back to within a half seat of the Crimson. But the boat regrouped, and quickly retook command of the situation. Twenty strokes later, Bixby's oar decided that once was not enough, as it dove back in the traditionally horrendous Severn for a second helping--this time, a boat-stopping crab.

"We took off again and had a great second thousand," Bixby said. "We just opened it up and said bye-bye." The final margin for the race was about a second of open water on the Quakers.

In the J.V. race, the Crimson also encountered its share of crabs and choppy water, but unfortunately it did not find the order as easy to digest, as this time it was the boats from Penn and Navy which bid au revoir to Harvard.

The second boat opened up with a bad start and proceeded to go up stream from there. And despite flashes of brilliance from the J.V. boat--it moved on a strong Penn eight consistently throughout the race--the crew was equally consistent in its inability to row smoothly, culminating in a boat-halting crab five strokes from the finish line.

"It was a pretty amazing race," six man Dave Wagner said, "and although we lost by five seconds most of the guys are confident we have the ability to come from behind and catch Penn at the Sprints."