The Harvard freshman heavy-weight crew rowed to an impressive first-place finish in the Tail of the Charles race yesterday.

In so doing, the Harvard first heavyweight boat avenged last year's loss to Northeastern, grabbing the laurels with a time of 12:56 in a race that featured 25 crews from Harvard, Northeastern, Boston University and MIT.

Northeastern placed second, 33 seconds behind Harvard. Boston University took third place.

Yesterday's event followed a "mini-Tail" held Friday since Tulane's crew was not able to stay for Monday's race. In that competition, which was comprised mainly of second and third crews from the competing schools, the Harvard second heavyweight boat took first place with a time of 13:20.

Tulane's first heavyweight boat trailed by 48 seconds in third place.

The two-and-one-half mile race, which is the freshman equivalent of the Head of the Charles regatta, was originally scheduled to be rowed last Saturday. The event was postponed because of heavy wind conditions on the Charles.

While rowers were happy to find that the calm wind yesterday provided fast racing conditions, they were also quick to find that the cold river posed a new set of problems.

"We hit a big patch of ice under the Anderson bridge," said Ted Marple, a rower on the Harvard first heavyweight boat. "I thought we had run aground. We plowed through it, but it slowed us down a bit."

"It was a cold race, but it was still a lot of fun," Marple added. "The ice and cold added a whole new dimension to the race."

Luck Is On Our Side

"It was extremely cold," said Mike Luck, an oarsman in Harvard's second heavyweight boat. "We were crunching through ice during warmups, and that was very disturbing."

Still, Luck said, the race was exciting, and the crews "rowed fairly well considering the less than ideal weather conditions."

"I was definitely pleased with the results of the race today," said Harvard varsity heavyweight crew Coach Harry Parker. "All of the Harvard crews did very well. If they continue to work and improve, they should do very well this spring."