The Harvard men's varsity heavyweight crew team opened its season in grand style Saturday, winning all three races against Brown in the 35th rowing of the Stein Cup, held on the Charles River.

The Crimson's first and second varsities and first freshman boat all won by narrow margins over the Bears.

In the first varsity race, No. 5-ranked Harvard edged out No. 7 Brown by 2.3 seconds with a time of 5:46.0.

"The usual plan is just to stay close for the first part of the race," junior Jeff Castellano said. "We stayed pretty close through the first 1,000 meters and then pulled ahead. We held a three-quarter-boat-length lead the rest of the race."

In the second varsity race, the Crimson finished with a time of 6:06:37, while the Bears were just behind in 6:07.1.

The first freshman boat had a slightly larger margin of victory, winning by 6.2 seconds with a time of 5:56.0.

Harvard leads the series 29-5 and has won three of the last four meetings between the two crews. The Crimson will face Princeton and MIT next Saturday at Princeton for the Compton Cup.

"Princeton is always tough," Castellano said. "Last year, the varsity beat them by a close margin. Hopefully we'll be able to pull it off again."

Harvard Lightweights

Saturday marked the second regatta of the season for the No. 2 Harvard men's lightweight crew.

Rowing in the 44th Biglin Bowl Regatta, the Crimson took four of the five contested races against No. 7 Dartmouth and No. 10 MIT, with the third Harvard freshman boat rowing uncontested.

In the first varsity race, the Crimson blew past both Dartmouth and MIT, winning with a time of 5:54.6-almost 10 seconds ahead of second-place Dartmouth.

"We moved out in the first 20 strokes and took a good lead in the first minute of the race," co-captain Thomas Fallows said. "We sat on that lead for the next 1,000 meters, and extended it significantly in the sprint."

Harvard's second varsity also won easily, crossing the line at 6:08.8--a7.9-second margin over Dartmouth and a 27.1-second margin over MIT.

The third varsity boat fell to Dartmouth, 7:00.4 to 7:11.1 MIT did not participate in the race.

In the first freshman contest, the Crimson finished in 6:17.7 with Dartmouth behind at 6:23.8 and MIT farther back at 6:26.6.