In the first novice race, Virginia won with a time of 6:53.8, well ahead of Radcliffe's 7:06.9.

The Radcliffe lightweights host Princeton at 9 a.m. next Saturday.

Harvard Heavyweights

Last year, in a show of tremendous strength and perseverance, the Harvard heavyweight crew edged out the Tigers by .4 seconds to win the Compton Cup on the Charles River.

Saturday, on Lake Carnegie in Princeton, N.J., the Crimson was unable to repeat last year's heroics against the Tigers.

Perennially strong, the No. 2 Tigers defeated No. 5 Harvard by a respectable 7.5 seconds, winning with a time of 5:50.7 to claim the Cup in the first varsity race. Harvard was second at 5:58.2, followed by MIT at a distant 6:24.7.

"They were fast," senior two-seat Todd Morgan said. "They took off 600 meters down and won by two lengths [a substantial margin]."

"We were very unhappy, needless to say," he said. "We expected to give them a better race than we did."

The Princeton-Harvard-MIT order was the theme for the day as the other three races all finished this way.

In the second varsity race, Princeton roared to a 5:58.0, 3.9 seconds ahead of Harvard and 39.4 seconds ahead of MIT.

The first freshman race was the largest blowout of the day for the Tigers. Princeton seared the water for a 5:48.7 finish, the Tigers' best time of the day. Harvard rowed a respectable 6:00.2 and MIT finished with a time of 6:32.0.

The second race was much closer. Princeton finished in 6:11.4, followed by Harvard close behind at 6:14.9. MIT crossed the line with a laughable 6:51.7.

The Harvard heavyweights are at Penn next weekend with Navy.

"It's going to be a very big race for us," Morgan said. "Penn especially will be contending this year."

The lightweights host Yale and Princeton next Saturday at 6:30 a.m.