They say the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Before yesterday morning, an MIT crew which had been the laughing stock of the scummy Charles last year loomed as a question mark in the mind of Radcliffe lightweight crew coach Peter Huntsman, who had heard reports they were vastly improved.

But the 'Cliffe varsity lights, on the line before most students had even poured milk on their Cap'n Crunch yesterday morning, proved that some things never change, as they swept to victory by a 19-second margin over the hapless Engineers in a race originally scheduled for Saturday.

Believe it or not, the thrashing didn't come quite as easily as it might seem. Radcliffe, normally very fast off the line, could manage only a two-seat lead over the women from down the Charles after 15 strokes.

"It was really scary--they settled first, we were still high, and we still weren't moving out," four-seat Ann Pawlowski said last night. "You could feel everyone kind of tense, wondering what was wrong," she added.

The women in black settled gradually, lengthened out, and proceeded to erase any doubts in the minds of the fish who were the only spectators. Radcliffe cruised to a sizable lead in the middle 500 meters, kept the power on through the end, and won the race going away.

CRAB SALAD: The lights rowed well on Saturday also, finishing only four seconds behind the heavyweight J.V. as unofficial entrants in that race... Coach Peter Huntsman took off after his crew's victory to run in the Boston Marathon... Kudos to Diana Shaw for a fine job as substitute cox for ailing Susie Peterson... The J.V. lights turned in a strong performance Saturday, losing to the Andover Varsity by only 3.5 seconds...