Inexperienced Harvard Edges Penn in Copley Cup

The Harvard men made things tough on the competition Sunday, but also made it tough on themselves. Still, the Crimson didn’t seem to mind.

A young, green Crimson 8 captured the Copley Cup for the second consecutive year, capping the 19th annual San Diego Crew Classic on a sun-splashed, breezy Mission Bay.

In a tight four-boat duel, Eastern invaders Harvard and Pennsylvania made it an all-Ivy League finish, with Harvard edging Penn by a bow length. On the clock, that meant an edge of 38/100ths of a second over 2,000 meters at Crown Point Shores.

The West fared better in the featured women’s race, with Washington winning the Whittier Cup by about a second and a half over defending champion Boston University.

With only one senior and three rowers back from last year--and entering its first competition of the season--Harvard was something of an unknown. Harvard had a new stroke who had never held that position, Didzis Voldins, and a new coxswain, David Weiden, both sophomores.

But it’s hard to say a team doesn’t have experience when its coach is in his 30th year, and Harry Parker’s latest edition proved to be up to a stiff test provided by Penn, Washington and Wisconsin.

The victory provided Parker with his sixth Copley Cup.

The Whittier Cup also came down to a four-boat charge, with Washington leading most of the race while holding off Penn at the midway point and Radcliffe and Boston University down the stretch.

It was a tough day for San Diego State, which won the men’s novice race by nearly three seconds but was disqualified for using a coxswain with previous experience. The victory was voided and runner-up Orange Coast College was declared the winner.

SDSU’s novice coxswain became academically ineligible recently.

“It was an innocent mistake but they didn’t notify us,” a U.S. Rowing Assn. official said. “It’s a tough lesson to learn but that’s the rules.”

It proved to be terribly embarrassing--the Aztecs had already received their medals and had to track down the OCC team. Said one coach, “What’s next, the shirts off our back?”