PETE GARDNER: The Rowing Club is now in the midst of its most successful season to date. Eleven crews representing Dartmouth competed against intercollegiate rivals all through April and May. Of this number the six top crews are to meet the best college crews in the country in the two championship regattas of May 16. At Princeton the varsity, junior varsity, and first freshman crews will meet Yale, Cornell, Navy, Wisconsin, Princeton and eight other outstanding crews to determine the champions in each of the three categories. In the 150-1b. division the three top crews will meet the other eight colleges which compete in the 150-1b. competition.
In these races I am certain that all the Dartmouth oarsmen will be giving their utmost. They are all competitors or they wouldn't be rowing. As added incentive they have all spent between $100 and $150 out of their own pockets and given up a good deal of their free time, including most of the big weekends, for the opportunity to match courage, endurance, skill and will with the best crews in the country.
At this point I could mention some outstanding individuals, men of great strength and ability, but crew is so much a team sport that I would not feel right in singling out any few. From the most able to the least they must work together to achieve anything in this sport. They all experience the frustration and gruelling despair of a boat that is heavy, sluggish and unbalanced. But they also, even if only for one stroke on one day, experience the elation of achieving the perfect balance between brute strength, delicate timing, precise bladework, and tremendous desire. When nine men achieve this they know the real meaning of the word teamwork. Such fleeting moments of perfection make all the sacrifices worth while, while the respect and affection they gain for their teammates makes the club a most meaningful entity in the lives of these students.
The goal of each oarsman is to row in a boat that achieves the very limit of its potential. When Dartmouth crews do that they can be the best in the world, as nine Yale men were in the 1956 Olympics, or as nine Navy men and nine Cornell men were before them. Nine Harvard men had the fastest 150 crew in the world last year at Henley, an honor won by M.I.T., Princeton and Pennsylvania in the past few years. How far Dartmouth has progressed toward its goals will be seen in the Sprint Championships in May and in the Intercollegiate Championships at Syracuse in June.
RED HOEHN: Bearing out my pre-season report, the tennis team is nearing the completion of a very successful year. Quickly reviewing the season now three-fourths completed, the team won six of seven matches played on the southern trip and was crowned champion of the Cherry Blossom Festival Tournament in Washington, D. C. Victories over Navy and Columbia continued the winning streak before we were halted by Yale, 8-1, and by Harvard by the same score at Cambridge. (These two teams were undefeated in E.I.L.T.A. competition and met for the championship May 13 with Yale winning 6-3.) As predicted, our match with Princeton becomes the important one of the season and could mean third place in the league standings (see results in the regular section). Cornell also remains a serious threat.
Dick Hoehn has been our number one player throughout the season and has a record thus far of eleven wins and three losses. Bill McClung, capable of playing brilliant tennis at times, has moved into the second spot and also has an overall 11-3 record. Sophomore Ron Pickett has proved his ability and should be of major help over the next two seasons. Jack McDonough, our number four man, has also played consistently well, as has Phil Langley, who this year did well as a singles player. Jack Herrick, "Opie" Jones and Nick Fenney are the other regular team members and are used interchangeably. However, Jack has suffered from the after-effects of a torn ligament, Opie bruised his heel bone and was out for two weeks, and Nick Fenney has his Tuck School studies to concentrate on. John Horan and Larry Holden have filled in nicely as needed. Our doubles combinations of Hoehn-Picket and McClung. McDonough have been consistent winners when the chips were down. The third combination is usually Fenney and Langley.