Harvard heavyweight crew resoundingly defeated the defending national champion Brown on the very choppy, very nasty Charles River Saturday.

Harvard smoked Brown by more than than three boat lengths. The Crimson completed the 2,000-meter course in 6:52.15, while the Bears came in more than 12 seconds later at 7:04.20.

The race was much more than about margin of victory, however. It was about the dethroning of a crew that had seemed invincible over the previous two seasons.

In a two-years, Brown has run Harvard and the rest of Collegiate crew ragged . Brown handed Harvard each of its dual-meet losses in the 1993 and 1994 seasons. And, the Bears won everything in sight last season--capturing a perfect dualmeet record, Eastern Sprints, the National Championship and the Henley Regatta in England.

Despite its gaudy record over the last couple of years, Brown appeared unprepared for the conditions that Harvard captain Elijah White termed "biblical." Headwinds were strong enough to knock a full minute off the two boat's expected times. Waves crashed over the big boat every third or fourth stroke. Conditions were so bad that B.U. and Northeastern decided to postpone their race until Tuesday.

"I've never raced in anything like it before," White said.

"Most of us couldn't even feel our fingers halfway into the race--they were numb," bow Scott Henderson said.

"It seemed like everyone in the boat gothammered by a wave every stroke that we took,"stroke Chris Dewing said.

The conditions dictated a quick start, with thegun going off right after the Crimson was tied tothe stake boats at the starting line. In fact,the start was so quick and Harvard so unready thatBrown, which had tied up before Harvard, got whatmight be termed a head start--an early six-seatlead.

The story of the race would begin to take shapein the first 700 meters. Surprisingly, the Harvardcrew seemed to be moving better that its Browncounterpart. The Crimson slowly narrowed the Bearlead, pulling back even by the 700-meter mark.

Lightning struck at that point.(Figuratively,of course, but anything seemed plausible in theterrible conditions the crews faced.) It would beBrown--not Harvard--that would have trouble withthe conditions.

Brown's Dave Fillipine caught a crab, Bouncingthe flat part of the oar off the water. It was amistake that was not surprising because of therough waters, but unexpected because heheavily-favored Bears are universally recognizedas a crew of the highest caliber.

"Dave Fillipine just control of his oarhandle," Henderson said. "It happens sometimes.All eight oarsmen have to get their oars of thewater at the same, especially in choppy water. Hejust wasn't able to do that."

The crab turned the even race into a one inwhich Harvard suddenly led by the better part of alength.

"When [Fillipine] caught the crab, what wentthrough my mind was 'I'm not losing this race,'"White said. "If everyone didn't think that,everyone certainly rowed like they were thinkingthat."

"I saw [Fillipine] catch the crab out of thecorner of my eye," stroke Chris Dewing said. "Iyelled at [cox] Todd Kristol--who I knew couldn'tsee anything--'Let's go!' I think everyone justrealized all at once that we were suddenly ahead."