Both M. Crew varsity eight boats place 4th

The heavyweight and lightweight men's crew teams gave solid performances against the nation's elite in the San Diego Crew Classic held in Mission Bay this past weekend. Both the heavyweight and lightweight varsity eights advanced to the grand final Sunday and finished fourth. The heavyweight second varsity also rowed well and won their Sunday race. On Saturday, the varsity heavies started things off with a third place finish in their heat, heat A, with a time of 6:03.64, behind Cal-Berkeley's 5:55.55 and Harvard's 5:58.54, assuring themselves a place in the grand final of the Copley Cup. Penn's time was nearly two full seconds ahead of Oregon State at 6:05.32, with Stanford and Purdue much farther behind at 6:13.79 and 6:22.66. As expected, Washington, Yale and Penn's Schuylkill neighbor Temple advanced from heat B. Sunday's race was certainly climactic, as the field contained five of the preseason's top six ranked teams in addition to 10th ranked Temple. Penn and Washington both started well and held the lead for the first 1,000 meters. Yale and Cal made up time in the second half of the race and finished ahead of the Quakers, but neither was able to catch last year's national champions. The Huskies crossed the line with a time of 5:38.66, followed by Cal's 5:42.15, Yale's 5:44.68 and Penn's 5:46.50. With the exception of Yale, the finish was identical to the preseason poll. In an attempt to increase boat speed, the lightweight varsity made lineup changes from last week's race against Rutgers and, in turn, qualified for Sunday's final with a solid second in their Saturday heat. Their time of 6:26.17 placed them second behind Yale and well ahead of UC-Davis, Pacific Lutheran and Seattle Pacific. On Sunday, the lightweights started well and were virtually tied for first with the Yale boat, but then, at 700 meters, the Elis began to power away. With only 900 meters to go and Penn still holding second, Harvard began to inch up at the same time that Rutgers made a major move from well back to also overtake the Quakers. The final times were Yale first at 5:58.2, Harvard second with 6:05.24 and Rutgers third with 6:11.10, barely nudging Penn at 6:13.59. The third men's team to race in San Diego, the heavyweight second varsity, failed to advance to the grand final of the men's JV division. They tried to overcome a poor start, but were edged at the line by only 13 one-hundredths of a second by Wisconsin. They bounced back Sunday to win the petite bracket of the men's JV division with an eight-second victory over Oregon State. Neither the heavies nor the lights will have a chance to reflect much on their performances, as challenging cup races await this weekend against Ivy League foes. If the ACC thinks they dominate in basketball, they should check the Ivies in crew, with five teams ranked in the top eight and seven in the top 15 of the national polls.