The Harvard heavyweight crew opened its Ivy League season with a disappointing loss to Brown Saturday on the Charles River.

Also on Saturday, the Radcliffe heavy-weights defeated Cornell but lost to Princeton.

The Men

Brown defeated Harvard by three boat-lengths, rowing its way in a strong tailwind to a Charles River-record time of 5:38.05. The Crimson crossed the finish line about ten seconds later, in 5:48.52.

"We rowed all right," said men's heavy-weight Coach Harry Parker. "The problem was, Brown was much faster. They're an exceptionally strong crew."

The defending national champions return seven starters and the coxswain, but have now lost to Washington and Brown on consecutive weekends. According to Parker, the reason for this is the vastly improved competition.

"This year's [Harvard] squad is comparable to last year's squad, but the competition has gotten a lot stronger," Parker said. "It's a different challenge. Brown and Washington are clearly much stronger."

However, some team members felt that Harvard could have done better despite the tougher competition.

"[Without even] looking at the results, the race was not a good one for us," said junior Didzis Voldins, who rows in the seventh seat. "We did not row up to our potential."

Voldins said that Harvard's not-so-great performance was partly due to the cruel hand of Mother Nature.

"We didn't have such a great week of practice because of some sickness in the boat," Voldins said.

Team members also said that Mother Nature held the team back in another way--by punishing Boston with a particularly severe winter. Harvard could not row on the Charles river until mid-March, a month later than usual.

"We lost a month of water time this year. We'll need a lot of time to get up to full speed," Voldins said.

"I'm not going to offer any excuses, but we will be back and we will be faster," junior Colin Chant said.

The Women