The Harvard heavyweight varsity crew opens its season today looking for revenge.

Brown visits the Charles River looking for a repeat of last year's matchup, when the eventual Eastern champion Bruins edged the eventual fourth-place Crimson at Providence.

"We don't know for sure how strong Brown is," Harvard Coach Harry Parker said yesterday, "but they had some pretty convincing victories over B.U. last week."

If Parker's in the dark about the visitors, though, that's nothing compared to how the Bruins must feel--the Crimson shell will feature just two oarsmen from last year's varsity.

Juniors Mike Scott and Neil Oleson return to the bow of the boat-piloted by junior coxswain Devin Mahony, another holdover--but sophomore Curt Pieckenhagen debuts at stroke, and Andy Sudduth, back from a year's leave of absence, rows six.

"If feels pretty good," said 1984 Olympic silver medalist Sudduth, who stroked the 1983 national champion Crimson crew. "I had a lot of experience last summer rowing back in the boat."

Young Blood

Four other sophomore make up the rest of the octet. Starboards Austin More and Rich Kennelly and four-man Dan Grout return from last year's Eastern champion first freshman boat, and Claude Sirlin jumps up from the second frosh eight.

"It's not a particularly big crew--probably similar in size to the last couple of years," Parker says. "But hopefully faster."

The varsity races in the Charles River Basin at noon, the junior varsity at 11:30 a.m., the first freshman at 10:45, third varsity at 10 and second freshmen at 9:45.

A Lighter Note

The lightweight crews, meanwhile, will wait to take to competition on the Charles until Sunday, when they host Coast Guard.

Today, the 150s travel to Dartmouth to face the Big Green and MIT, and if you thought the heavyweight varsity had seen some personnel changes, meet the light-weight j.v. It features the two most recent varsity strokes--Dave Berger (last week) and James Sheldon (last season).

The Crimson took third behind Yale and San Diego State at last week's San Diego Crew Classic, and subsequent lineup changes have landed junior Peter Herbig at eight in the first boat.