When it comes to heavyweight crew, there's Brown and then there's all the rest. The Brown heavyweight crew captured everything in sight last season. The Bears won at Eastern Sprints, Nationals and the Henley Regatta in England. Adding insult to injury, Brown blew out Harvard--by more than seven seconds--in a dual meet for the second year in a row.

"Brown will again field a very strong crew," White said. "Crews from Princeton and Northeastern figure to be strong as well."

Well, some people are speculating that Brown is fielding an Olympic-caliber crew this season. And that is a formidable obstacle standing in the way of Harvard's attempt at gaining its first national title since 1993.

"The desire is there," White emphasized. "We have been working very hard."

If the heavyweights' 1994 season was disappointing, the lightweights' season was disastrous. After the campaign started out positively with a first-place finish at San Diego and dual meet wins against MIT and Navy, things took a decided turn for the worse. The Crimson was disqualified at H-Y-P's, lost to Dartmouth, placed fifth at Springs and finished third at the National Championships.

It wasn't exactly a fairy-tale season.

However, 1995 brings six new rowers to the varsity eight and plenty of optimism. Bow Andrew Wilson, five-man Field Ogden, Matt Emans and coxswain Chris Schulte are the lightweight returnees. Ted Shergalis and Greg Ruckman should also find a place in the varsity boat.