Some day Harvard will win the Ivy League basketball title. Someday the Red Sox will win the American League East. And someday Brown will win the Stein Cup.

But the Harvard heavyweight crew delayed that eventuality for at least one year with a definitive victory in the 15th 2000-meter Stein Cup race, Saturday on the Charles River.

The Crimson opened a sizeable lead early in the race, hung on to the length-and-a-half margin through the middle 1000 meters, then left the hapless Bruin eight treading water in the final 250 meters for a two-length, 5:52.5 to 5:59.0 win.

Paul Templeton, who rows in the bow seat, said yesterday, "We had heard they were quick starters, but they were really low. They were at 32 (strokes per minute) and we were doing about 38 or 40."

Vic Michaelson, coach of the Brown heavies, concurred, saying, "We started with a cadence of 32, and you don't win races that way."

"Harvard is always tough and we went into it trying to keep our cool, but their tradition tends to have psychological effect on crews," he added.

The oarsmen's time tied the course record set by Pennsylvania five years ago, but several rowers did not feel completely satisfied by the performance.

"I wish we would have been able to move on them in the body of the race," senior captain Gordie Gardiner said yesterday. Senior five seat Hap Porter agreed and said, "I was a little disappointed with our performance. We weren't smooth."

The Crimson's two convincing wins this year, the first coming in the San Diego Crew Classic, set the stage for a confrontation with Yale, also undefeated, in the Eastern Sprints, May 13.

The Elis were the only national contenders not to race at San Diego; and as defending champions at the Sprints they rate as co-favorites with the Crimson.

"This year it'll be especially good because the winner will have claim to best in the country," Porter said.

Yale remained undefeated with an eight-second humiliation of Princeton on the Housatonic River in Derby, Conn., Saturday.

Harvard's junior varsity and frosh oarsmen dimmed any Bruin hopes of a renaissance with wins in Saturday's preliminaries. The J.V. squeaked by, 6:05.7 to 6:06.8; but Ted Washburn's rookies, a traditionally invincible octet, wasted Brown's version of Yardlings, 6:02.5 to 6:15.7.

"We took out lunch along--we were out for picnic lunch," Bruin coach Michaelson said.

Pressure